Description: This common, dark brown to blackish, crustose species occurs mostly on the surface of sandy or peaty soils associated with heathy ground; it is also recorded from rotting wood. The thallus, which is C-, is seen as a dark brown crust of tiny spherical granules that turns green when moist. Discs are common, very often abundant. They are brown with a darker margin which is excluded as the disc matures and becomes convex. The species is restricted to the drier soils of eastern Ireland.

Key Identification Features:

• • The C- thallus, and spherical granules distinguishes it from most other similar species
• The lookalike Placynthiella icmalea forms carpets of minute, soft brown, stick-like isidia over peaty soils and decaying wood and is C+ red.

Original text submitted by Simon Davey

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

iNaturalist: Placynthiella uliginosa at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.