Usnea hirta

Common name	Bristly Beard	Code: USNEHIR
Field Characters	Fruticose, hair-like chlorolichen. Thallus typically shrubby, with pale yellow branches that diverge widely, but occasionally when well-developed becoming pendant in part. Cortex dull. Attached with a pale holdfast, not blackened like most other Usnea. Lacking papillae, often foveolate and angular. Lacking soredia, instead with punctiform soralia giving rise to isida. Fibrils often abundant. Tips of branches often melanotic and with black flecks throughout the cortex, presumably from a lichenicolous fungus. With an elastic central axis, and often loose, thick medulla, and thin, shiny cortex in section.
Similar species	Usnea scabrata: branches papillate and pendant, base blackened at attachment point.
Ecology	Common epiphyte on conifers, and especially abundant in open treed wetlands and jackpine stands. Also found on downed wood. Common across the forested regions of Alberta, becoming sparse in the parkland and grassland regions.
Chemistry	Cortex KC+ yellow, K- or K+ pale yellow, C-, PD-, UV- (usnic acid), all medullary spot tests negative.
Molecular support	Strong at the species level. In a multi-locus phylogeny, Lucking et al. (2020) found that species described as U. hirta formed a strongly-supported monophyletic clade, though accessions were from Europe only.
Links	Alberta Biodiversity Browser Consortium of Lichen Herbaria Ways of Enlichenment Photo Gallery
Gallery