I had so much fun taking photos of
Cladonia lichen at home, that I brought home a stick populated with reindeer lichen to add to my collection.
Up close, it turns out to have red tips (apothecia, or fruiting bodies) to each branch.
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| The branches split two or three ways, then split again, and again at the very tip. |
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| And the stalks are speckled with green scales (squamules). |
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| Up to about 5 stalked fruiting bodies at the tip of each branch. |
Out in the field, the lichen is such a pale green that it almost seems white in the sunshine, and the red tips are invisible.
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| Reindeer lichen on a log with Cladonia. Some clusters of reindeer lichen in this area grow up to a foot deep and would fill an armload. |
The ledge on the cliff next to our cabin is covered in reindeer moss. I love the look of it mixed with the green from red bryum moss. - Margy
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