Description: This is a species of windswept sites in the mountains. It has a squat, prostrate habit that can be easily missed among the chaos of shattered rock and boulder screes. The flattened mat-forming thallus, comprising brown-black, shiny, wiry branches (like 2D, textbook diagrams of trees in winter) bring to mind species such as Ephebe lanata. Discs can be common at higher altitudes. It is occasional in Ireland but most abundant in Connemara.

Key Identification Features:

• Thallus almost black, shiny, forming flat mats of radiating branches
• Like an enlarged Ephebe lanata; windswept summits and ridges in the mountains.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Pseudephebe pubescens at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.