Cetraria sepincola (Ehrh.) Ach.

    Foliose thallus forming small globose colonies 1-3 cm in diameter on their substrate, consisting of lobes 10 mm long and 2-3 mm wide with rounded apex, upper surface smooth and shiny, olive-brown when wet, chocolate-brown when dry, lower surface very pale brown to whitish with rare simple rhizines, white medulla. Apothecia very numerous and able to mask the lobes, submarginal, lecanorine, 3-4 mm in diameter, disc flat to slightly convex, reddish-brown, margin very thin, smooth to finely crenate. Asci with 8 spored with a large tholus. Simple spores, hyaline, broadly elliptical, 6-1 x 5-7 µm. Marginal pycnidia, black, conidia dumbbell-shaped, 5-7 x 1 µm. Photobiont: chlorococcoid. Cortex and medulla: K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Subarctic and subalpine species growing on the small branches of trees or bushes (especially Betula from peat bogs) in the mountains, rarely in the hilly level.