#Cladonia stygia

[lichenaday]

Cladonia stygia

Black-footed reindeer lichen

Y'all, I am running out of reindeer lichens to post on Christmas. This may be my last year, so please give your appreciation for C. stygia. And if you aren't into Christmas, you can appreciate C. stygia for all the good it does keeping caribou and reindeer alive throughout the cold winter in the northern tundra! This fruticose lichen grows in thick, mat-forming patches in moors, bogs, moist-tundra, and montane heathlands in the northern hemisphere. It has an ephemeral, arachnoid to areolate white basal thallus, and shrubby podetia that are brown-black at the base. and blue-gray to ash-gray throughout the middle. The lobe tips are branched, and are often brown-black in color, with occasional brown, convex apothecia, but more often with dark pycnidia immersed in the lobe tips, which apparently have a red jelly? IDK it's the holidays and I don't have the energy to research what that means, but sounds awesome. Like other reindeer lichen, C. stygia makes up the majority of winter biomass in many tundra habitats, providing an invaluable food source for forging animals in Arctic and montane habitats.

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