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(Map updated: 11 August 2009)

This variety of C. tenax is a familiar colonist of damp, gravelly paths and tracks. It forms pulpy cushions resembling spongy colonies of small, black sea anemones. The tentacle-like lobes can be flattened or branched. Scattered in Ireland, but probably much overlooked.

Key characteristics

• Thallus black, ‘medusa-like’, with pulpy cushions bearing numerous narrow lobes
• On sandy tracksides often between fragments of embedded rock. C. tenax var. tenax has smooth, almost cushion-like lobes, the lobes barely visible as such.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini