Pixie cups

This lichen, Cladonia fimbriata, will always be known as 'Pixie cups' by me as that's what we called it as children. It's a relatively common lichen and I remember the excitement of finding a miniature forest of it on an old rock pile or rotting gate-post and imagining the mysterious pixie-sized world that it must be part of. The stalked podetia (wine glass like cups) that carry the fruiting bodies are amazing structures. Here you can see a couple of secondary podetia growing out of other ones. I used to imagine being small enough to wander about in moss and lichen forests...I still do nearly 60 years later!