ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Parmeliaceae

Genus Vulpicida, meaning 'fox' and 'murder' - a name that comes from the lichen once being used as poison for killing foxes in Sweden.

Common name:            Powdered Sunshine Lichen

Synonym:                    Cetraria pinastri

Habitat:                         Montane

Substrata:                     Bark

Growth form:                Corticolous

Thallus:                  Foliose

Apothecia:                    Lecanorine, very rare

BLS identity rating:        Graded 1/5 (identification should be straightforward)

Thallus forming small, loosely attached rosettes to around 3cm across, often joining; lobes radiating or irregularly arranged, slightly scattered or overlapping, short, especially when on rock, usually a little longer and more erect on branches, rounded, flat or slightly trough-shaped with short branches, margins crisped and crenate; upper surface yellowish-green, greyish-green in more shaded areas, greener when moist, smooth and dull; lower surface yellow, becoming almost black in the centre, with scattered whitish rhizines; the margins of the lobes covered in bright yellow soredia; apothecia very rare, if present, towards tips of lobes, disc pale red-brown, flat with thalline margin.

Very rare in Britain, only recorded from a few locations, mostly in Scotland.

In Austria where these specimens were photographed, it is described as "a subarctic-subalpine to boreal-montane, circumpolar species found on basal parts of trunks, especially conifers, and on twigs with long snow cover ...., widespread and common throughout the Alps".