(curled snow lichen)
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Photo of Flavocetraria cucullata by Peter Nelson
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Curled snow lichen is a distinctive
foliose species of the forest floor and tundra. It is ground dwelling, found mixed with mosses or in large clumps. Individual
thalli are 2-8 cm tall, growing upright. The notable features of this lichen are its pale yellow color (the source of the genus name 'flavo-' means yellow) and its narrowly inrolled and ruffled
thallus, 2-6 mm wide, often partially fused into a tube. The
thallus is unbranched to sparsely and irregularly branched. The base is often reddish (pull out from the ground to see).
Apothecia, when present, are large, round and brown. Black
pycnidia are produced on the tips. Similar species include the less common
Flavocetraria nivalis, but that species is wider, not tightly inrolled, and has a crinkled appearance. The uncommon
Flavocetraria miniscula has an near identical appearance, but is much smaller (2-3 cm tall and 1-2 mm wide).
Vulpicida species are the only other yellow, ruffled lichens in Alaska, but they are a bright saffron orange color, and the most common species (
V. pinastri) is found on twigs and bark, not on the ground.
This species is almost never found fertile, and spreads asexually through fragmentation and asexual
spores. The fruiting bodies are brown
apothecia.
Circumboreal, with scattered locations in the southern hemisphere.