Description: This large, elegant, loosely attached, grey to very pale blue foliose species with long, flat, narrow lobes, has an uncracked thallus and neat, powdery soralia on the lobe ends. The white medulla (scratch away some of the outer layer to expose) is C+ orange. It grows on acid-barked tree species (oak, birch, holly, alder) in hilly parts of Ireland but is especially frequent along the west coast.

Key Identification Features:

• The similar Hypotrachyna taylorensis has neither soredia nor isidia; it is also characterised by a pale yellow medulla
• Hypotrachyna revoluta lacks the narrow lobes, it is sorediate, and has more rounded, revolute lobes; it is C+ red rather than orange.

Original text submitted by Simon Davey

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

iNaturalist: Hypotrachyna laevigata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.