Pycnothelia papillaria #

Taxon #

Pycnothelia papillaria

Organization #

Cladoniaceae

Identification #

A greenish, grayish, or whitish lichen with a granular primary thallus from which inflated podetia with smooth, esorediate, papillose ends and constricted bases emerge. This thallus of granules, rather than squamules, separates it from the genus Cladonia The apothecia are small and brown, clustered in a way not seen in other short-stalked genera like Dibaeis (Brodo et al. 2001). Similarly smooth fruticose, esorediate genera such as Allocetraria and Dactylina do not have granular primary thalli.

Substrate #

terricolous (Spribille et al. 2023), saxicolous (CLH)

Chemical Tests #

thallus: K+ yellow, C-, KC-, Pd- or Pd+ yellow (Brodo et al. 2001)

Notes #

This species appears rare in Alaska and with only a few collections the distribution in the state is not well-defined.