british soldier lichen

1/31/12
Coordinates:N43.582161,-70.699501

Field Notes
We are outside looking for lichen at Massabesic Middle School trying to identify everything on campus. Outside there is about 15cm of snow on the ground. It is about 0 degrees celsius with the wind chill. Wind is 30 kph and gusts up to 40 kph. We went outside to look for lichen. My group found maybe 4-5 different species in a fairly small area. Most of them were on pine trees, but a few were on dead stumps and logs. The one I chose is called a British Soldier. I found it on a stump under 10-15 cm of snow. It was about 30 meters in the woods. I think the reason they call it a British Soldier is because of the red top it has. It has a woody stem, and a green stem, with a red top. The top looks like a bouquet of red roses. It is less than a centimeter tall, and is about 3 mm wide. none of them are more than 1.5 centimeters tall. The scientific name for the British Soldier lichen is Cladonia Cristatella. It is a fruticose lichen. These are they way these are classified: Kingdom: Fungi, Division: Ascomycota, Class: Lecanoromycetes, Order: Lecanorales, Family: Cladoniaceae, Genus: Cladonia, Species: Cladonia Cristatella.