Cladonia borealis S. Stenroos

    Primary thallus, well developed and persistent, forming a thick carpet of large tight squamules of 4-10 mm with an upturned lobed apex and a little indented, upper surface gray-green, whitish at the margin, lower surface paler to whitish. Podetions in a cup or in a funnel (scyphus), bristling in all their parts with erect "scales" more or less rounded, greenish-gray, deciduous and falling from the base of the scyphus. Globular apothecia at the margin of the cups, bright red. All parts are tinged more or less ocher-yellow in old age. Pycnidia also at the margin of the cups in the form of small granules at the top of a tiny pseudo-stipe, red. C-, K-, KC + yellow, P-. Species from the Cladonia coccifera group that comes to the ground in high mountains or boreal regions. See Cladonia diversa, which has persistent scales and which grows in more temperate climates.