Description: This brown or brown-green Cladonia has long, tapering upright stems (podetia) bare of scales, terminating in a solid, crown-like cup, like a chess piece. It is typical of thin, acid soils around the edge of bogs and upland acid outcrops. It is relatively frequent in suitable habitats throughout Ireland, except for the far south and the midlands.

Key Identification Features:

• This species has a very characteristic spreading crown around the rim of the cups decorated with brown, stalked spots (and occasionally proliferating spiked stems) which can either be young discs or pycnidia
• The above character separates it from the similar and very common Cladonia furcata
• Attention to the structures at the top of the podetia should confirm it.

Original text submitted by Simon Davey

Distribution Map from NBN: Cladonia gracilis at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Cladonia gracilis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.