Cladonia Alpine
The thallus is bushy, consisting of hollow cylindrical outgrowths up to 20 cm tall, dichotomously branching, especially intensively forming sods with dome-shaped elevations in the upper part. The crust layer on the podiae is absent, their surface is finely tomentose, smooth or tuberculate at the base, whitish-green or yellowish-whitish. In places of branching on podetsia small holes are formed. Fruit bodies (apothecia) are very small, brown, 0.5 mm in diameter, located at the ends of the branches. Spores elongated to fusiform 6(10)-14 x 2.5-4.5 µm.
Occurs on sandy soil, in sun-exposed glades, in pine forests, rarely on hummocks of swamps.
In Russia, it is distributed within the forest zone. The raw material contains usnic and other lichen acids, which have a pronounced antimicrobial activity. The plant is used to obtain the product “Binan”.