Description: Walking the cliff tops of the west of Ireland you might come across this large, blue-grey species nestling into soily turf at the foot of an outcrop or a deeply embedded boulder. Some people may dismiss it as a small, innocuous pile of seaweed or strange alga, shredded and blown here by the wind and it is easy to see why. L. britannicum is quite unlike most lichens, thin-lobed and papery, crisp and wrinkled when dry, like translucent, thickly-shredded tracing paper. There are no isidia or soredia, and discs are rare. When wet it turns green-grey. Look for it on cliff-top slopes, on soily walls and around the edge of towering outcrops. Reactions negative. Western Ireland.

Key Identification Features:

• Blue-grey, papery-wrinkled thallus closely bound to the soil; among short grasses or mosses, thallus without isidia or soredia
• Exposed, grassy sites above steep coastal cliffs in the west.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Leptogium britannicum at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.