Scientific Name:	Cladonia rangiferina (L.) F. H. Wigg.
Scientific Name Synonyms:	Cladina rangiferina
English Name:	gray reindeer
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference:	Esslinger, T.L. and R.S. Egan. 1995. A sixth checklist of the lichen-forming, lichenicolous, and allied fungi of the continental United States and Canada. The Bryologist 98(4): 467-549.
Classification Level:	Species
Species Group:	Lichen
Species Code:	CLADRAN
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Plantae Ascomycota Lecanoromycetes Lecanorales Cladoniaceae
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status:	G5 (Jun 2013)
Provincial Status:	S5 (Mar 2018)
BC List:	Yellow
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General Status Canada:
Ecology & Life History
General Description:	Reindeer lichen (an association of a fungus and an alga) is a fruticose lichen forming grey-green thick cushions on the ground in boreal and sub-arctic-tundra regions. (Fruticose lichens are radially symmetrical, the thallus being more or less round.) Branches arising from the thallus have tips that are swept in more or less the same direction. Growth occurs by producing new branches each year, as well as by elongation of older branches.
Technical Description:	Primary thallus soon disappearing and seldom seen; crustose, thin, of subglobose verrucules 0.22-0.4 mm in diameter; ashy-white. Podetia in tufts or in extensive mats; usually robust, 5-10 (-15) cm tall and 1-1.6 (-3) mm in diameter; the branching anisotomic dichotomous, trichotomous, or tetrachotomous, the branches rebranched, the tips of sterile branchlets with whorls of 2-3 branchlets around an open axil and recurved to one side, the tips of fertile branches in a corymbose arrangement; the axils open; gray, more gray than the colour of the other Cladinae, becoming whitish or pale greenish in shaded places, occasionally blackened in the sun, the base blackening on dying; the surface markedly arachnoid-tomentose with the greenish areoles scattered and more or less verruculose, especially towards the base, the young parts more or less smooth; usually lacking soredia; usually not pellucid. Apothecia small; solitary or in corymbs at the tips of branchlets; dark brown or black. Pycnidia at the tips of the branchlets; containing colourless jelly (Thomson 1984).
Diagnostic Characteristics:	A reindeer lichen, grey-green in colour, forming a cushion, growing on the ground. The tips of the branches point in one direction.
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Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month)
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Economic Attributes
Distribution
Endemic:	N
Disjunct, more common elsewhere:
Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere:
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author:	BLOUIN, F.
Last Updated:
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
Last Literature Search:
References and Related Literature
No references available

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. Species Summary: Cladonia rangiferina. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Sep 20, 2026).