Order: Lecanorales       Family: Sphaerophoraceae Species: Sphaerophorus globosus Growth type fruticose. Photos: Among moss on branch and rock. Co.Cork, SW Ireland. The green-grey tinged orange-brown thallus is bushy and unevenly branched with many small digitate branchlets. Globose apothecia develop at branch tips and split releasing blue-black spores, the spores broadly ellipsoid to +/- globose, 8-12 x 7-11 µm. Mainly found in western Ireland on mossy, acidic upland rocks and trees and on peaty soils. It can be found at lower altitudes and is more frequent than Sphaerophorus fragilis. Medulla: K-, P-, I+ blue (test in slide preparation)

Sphaerophorus globosus. November 2008, August 2009, January 2011