Notes: Characterization: Cladonia with
(1) tall, slender podetia topped with very slender cups, which are only slightly wider than the shank of the podetia
(2) podetia completely covered in farinose soredia; no granules
(3) each podetium arising from the interior of a crenulate, sometimes crisped or incised squamule with margins reaching or rolled upward, exposing a cottony white undersurface

If the much shorter podetia to the right in this photo are of the same species (which seems to be the case, although that wasn’t evident at first) then the apothecia (or pycnidia) are bright red and are sparsely distributed around the periphery of the cup, and one out-of-fucus individual seems to have re-radiated tiny podetia from the rim of a larger podetium.

Identification: Hinds and Hinds (2007, p.179) remark that apart from Cladonia deformis, the only other cup-forming Cladonia in New England with farinose podetia and red apothecia is C. sulphurina, but that species has longitudinal fissures on the podetia, which is clearly not the case here.

Common name: lesser sulfur-cup