Description: This rather squat and bushy, or tangled, or occasionally stringy and pendulous ‘beard lichen’, needs acid bark to thrive. The grey-green thallus grows to about 4cm (but it is usual to find it much shorter). The branches are irregular in cross-section and limp when moistened with water. The main stems like porcupine legs carry a host of projecting spine-like spinules. Spot tests are negative. In Ireland, the species is more common in the north, around Connemara and near Belfast, especially.

Key Identification Features:

• Dense tufts of scraggy branches (often of different thicknesses)
• Spot tests negative; branches thick with spinules; on acid bark and wood.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Usnea hirta at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.