''Cladonia digitata'', commonly known as the finger cup lichen, is a

cup lichen A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

species in the family Cladoniaceae.

Description

''Cladonia digitata'' is a fruticose lichen found mainly in northern Eurasia and North America. It grows mainly on rotten wood, but also grows in rich soils or living plants. The primary thallus is composed of large or medium-sized squamules, 2–15 mm. long, involute or somewhat flat and sometimes sorediate at the margin or below. The podetia arise from the surface of the primary thallus, around 10-15mm. long. The lower part is .5–4 mm. in diameter and cylindrical or often incrassate below the cups. Its proliferation is either simple or repeated; The upper part and especially the cups are sorediate and the cavity corticate. The lower part or sometimes the entire podetium is covered with a continuous cortex, without squamules. The cups are medium-sized, 10–15 mm. in diameter and 2–5 mm. high. The margin is commonly somewhat incurved, sub-entire, dentate radiate or proliferate. The ascoma are apothecial, apothecioid or

hymenial The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others some c ...

. The apothecium, reddish in color, is usually medium-sized, or rarely small, .5-5mm. in diameter. They are located at the apices of the branches or rarely on the margin of the cups, are either simple or clustered and either convex or immarginate. The

paraphyses Paraphyses are erect sterile filament-like support structures occurring among the reproductive apparatuses of fungi, ferns, bryophytes and some thallophytes. The singular form of the word is paraphysis. In certain fungi, they are part of the fe ...

are simple or rarely branched, and are somewhat enlarged toward the apex. The asci are cylindrico-clavate The

asci ASCI or Asci may refer to: * Advertising Standards Council of India * Asci, the plural of ascus, in fungal anatomy * Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative * American Society for Clinical Investigation * Argus Sour Crude Index * Association of ...

are lecanoralean, with a thickened tholus. There are normally 8

ascospores An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or ...

.Fink, Bruce, (1908). Further Notes on Cladonias. XIV. Cladonia digitata, Cladonia deformis and Cladonia bellidiflora. The Bryologist , Mar., 1908, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Mar., 1908), pp. 21-24. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3238248

Biochemistry

Among the secondary metabolites are bellidiflorin,

thamnolic acid Thamnolic acid is a β-orcinol depside with the molecular formula C19H16O11. Thamnolic acid was first isolated from the lichen '' Thamnolia vermicularis'', but it also occur in ''Cladonia ''Cladonia'' is a genus of moss-like lichens in the fa ...

(which has shown use as an antimicrobial agent), decarboxythamnolic acid and the red pigment rhodocladonic acid.Cankılıç, Sarıözlü, Canda & Tay. (2017) ''Screening of antibacterial, antituberculosis and antifungal effects of lichen Usnea florida and its thamnolic acid constituent'' Biomedical Research (2017) Volume 28, Issue 7Culberson, Chicita F., (1970), Supplement to "Chemical and Botanical Guide to Lichen Products" The Bryologist Vol. 73, No. 2 (Summer, 1970), pp. 177-377

References

* , ''Deutschl. Fl., Zweiter Theil'' (Erlangen): 124 (1796)
USDA Plant Database

* , ''Guide des fougères, mousses et lichens d'Europe'', Delachaux et Niestlé , (1989).

Links to photos

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''Cladonia digitata''
* (photo by M. Sutcliffe
''Cladonia digitata''

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2974936 digitata Lichen species Lichens described in 1796 Taxa named by Georg Franz Hoffmann