Cladonia grayi
Description : Flora (1985: 114).
Chemistry : K−, KC−, Pd+ red or −; containing grayanic (UV+ lilac) and fumarprotocetraric (±) acids.
N: South Auckland to Wellington (Pohangina Valley). S: Nelson, Westland, Southland (Awarua Bog). St: On rotting wood, sandy peat, under tussocks in grassland or in manuka heath. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Greenland, North America, Japan, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina (Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Ahti 2000; Brodo et al. 2001; Santesson et al. 2004).
Cosmopolitan
Illustrations : Ahti (2000: 120, fig. 64); Brodo et al. (2001: 51, fig. 35)
Cladonia grayi is characterised by: the presence of grayanic acid (UV+ lilac). Morphologically it is virtually indistinguishable from C. chlorophaea (q.v.), but the presence of grayanic acid is diagnostic. Ahti (2000: 122) notes of C. grayi"…It is often morphologically distinguished by its fine soredioid granules (e.g. inside the scyphi when viewed from above) and presence of squamules on stalks of brownish podetia, The clear lilac fluorescence of the medulla under a UV lamp is usually enough for definite identification of grayanic acid, its diagnostic character."
