Description: On dry, heathy sites and along the edge of moorland this lichen makes itself very conspicuous owing to the long, antler-like ‘arms’ that proliferate from cups developed at the tops of the stalks (podetia). At times these ‘arms’ appear to be waving in the breeze as though ‘flagging down a car’ but some specimens can have them twisted into delicate spirals thus appearing more intimate. An eminent lichenologist once remarked that “this is a species in love with itself’’. The dull to bright grey-green podetia are mostly floury-sorediate. The scaly squamules frequently disintegrate to nothing. Discs are rare. Reactions: Pd+ rust-red.

Key Identification Features:

• Podetia, floury-sorediate, the terminal cups with long, slender, antler-like proliferations; base squamules almost non-existent
• Thallus Pd+ rust-red; it can sometimes have a longitudinal slit down the podetia like C. glauca but that species is Pd-.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Cladonia subulata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.