Description: Nicknamed the ‘string of sausages lichen’, it is easy to see why. This pollution-sensitive, smooth-branched ‘beard’ lichen is one of the most bizarre of Ireland’s shrubby species with a combination of inflated and stringy branches. Colonies can grow to half a metre or more in length. Sometimes they almost resemble the roots of a shallow rooting tree. It really cannot be confused with any other Usnea. U. cornuta has only slightly swollen branches. Local: in southern half of Ireland.

Key Identification Features:

• Thallus long, pendulous and straggling
• Branches swollen like a ‘string of sausages’; without soredia.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Usnea articulata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.