Cup Lichen

3 February 2014

Castleton, Peak District

Broad warty cups of Cladonia lichen growing on the shady, north-facing side of a drystone wall on a farm track just north of Castleton. There are a number of similar species but this looks very like the cup lichen, Cladonia pyxidata, and the habitat, a millstone grit drystone wall, is right because it is found 'on acid mineral soils and amongst mosses' and it is 'common on banks, walls and rocks'.*

* According to Hans Martin Jahns, Collins Guide to the Ferns, Mosses & Lichens of Britain and Northern and Central Europe, 1983,and Roger Phillips, Grasses, Ferns, Mosses & Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland, 1980.