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Images of British Lichens


Usnea articulata (L.) Hoffm.


Fruticose, much branched, prostrate or pendulous, often detached and draped over branches, continuing to grow, grey-green, not blackened at the base, branches smooth to minutely nodulose or sparsely spinulose, main branches becoming articulated into inflated, sausage-like sections. Formerly widespread in southern and western Britain but highly pollution sensitive and now rare except in the extreme south-west, on branches in tree canopies ond on hedges, sometimes terrestrial.

Refs: James (2003), 15 (line illustrations); Smith et al. (2009), 921; Purvis et al. (1992), 622; Dobson (2005), 441 (photo); Dobson (2011), 448 (photo); Jahns (1983), 188-9 (photo); Whelan (2011), 148 (photo); Tõrra & Randlane (2007), 420 (photo), 432; van Haluwyn et al. (2009), 120-1 (photos); Puntillo (1996), plate 41 (photo).

 
Usnea articulata
Usnea articulata, primary branch
Usnea articulata, fine branches
On branch of Oak (Quercus) (wind-blown, fallen material, now dry), from Kingcombe Dorset, April 2009; borrowed
from Robin Crump (so this is a set-up, branch balanced between two chairs, with a white-painted wall in the background).
 
 
Usnea articulata in situ
Usnea articulata in situ
Usnea articulata, primary branches
Usnea articulata, fine branches
Usnea articulata, fine branches
On Common Sallow (Salix cinerea subsp. oleifolia), abundant on one tree, in quaking swamp on lake edge,
Orielton, Pembrokeshire, May 2009: thallus in situ; primary branch showing articulation; fine branches.
Identity confirmed by Pat Wolseley (TLC demonstration, fumarprotocetraric acid confirmed).


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Uploaded May 2009, last updated May 2012