Ramalina siliquosa
Ramalina breviuscula auct. brit.
Ramalina scopulorum
Ramalina siliquosa var. crassa
Ramalina siliquosa var. druidarum
The thallus is very variable, erect or pendant, sometimes from a crustose base. It is glossy or warted and wrinkled, pale yellow-grey to greenish grey with branches often scimitar shaped, brittle, little divided above the base. Often fertile with pale fawn discs on side branches.
Chemistry: Usually C- and K- but can be K+ red.
Similar species: R. cuspidata is more distinctly pendant with rounder and narrower branches, more yellowish in colour and usually blackened at the base. Roccella fuciformis has mauve-grey lobes and is C+ red on cortex and soralia.
Very common on hard siliceous rocks in maritime districts above the high water mark. Also inland in exposed sites subject to maritime influence.
Coastal throughout Britain and Ireland.
Text by David Brabban