Greetings Duffy, Lovely photos – thank you for sharing these. Please note that lichen species in Italy will be different in some cases than lichens in the PNW and in North America. Also Cladonia is not a genus I have focused on in my studies. If this were in North America, based on the photo I would be comparing Cladonia pyxidata, C. fimbriata, C. chlorophaea, C. asahinae, C. carneola, C. pocillum, C. humilis, and C. magyarica. As well as non-apotheciate specimens of C. borealis, C pleurota, and C. coccifera. Noting also that some of these have individual varieties and some are considered groups or complexes of species. There may be other species in Italy to consider. From the photo this looks most like Cladonia pyxidata, noting the squamules on the inside and outside of the podetia cups. The cups in general don’t appear to be flaring and the base does not appear to be a rosette. I see no brown or red apothecia. I hope that is useful to you, Cheers, frog
Many, many thanks, You have been extremely helpful. I could never have hoped for so much academic information. In my archive there are many different species lichens, liverworts and mosses. My information I have gathered from The Oxford book of floweless plants. If I remember correctly it was published in the early 70s, if not earlier. I have another book on mosses, lichens and liverworts. A scholarly work let down by extremely poor photographs. I have found it impossible to use as a field guide. In my archive, if I remember correctly, Cladonia fimbriata is included. My archive is not available on the computer I am at present using. If I am right I will post a new thread tomorrow with Cladonia fimbriata. If you are interested, I will post 1-2 threads daily. Can you recommend a modern field guide of S. European sp. Thanks again.
@duffy, please post lichens in this forum: Fungi, Lichens and Slime Molds. I think liverworts and mosses stay in Plants: Identification. @Frog, correct us if I'm wrong about this.
