Cladonia Species, Pebbled Pixie-Cup, Pixie Cup Lichen

Pixie Cup Lichen is composed of algae and fungus, and like the name implies, is a tiny light green cup about half an inch high which grow...Read Mores on damp, rotting wood on the ground - and used by pixies or wood fairies to sip their morning dew from. Pixie Cup apparently, is one lichen that can be eaten in time of dire straights. It was once gathered because of the presence of didymic acid which was used as a treatment for tuberculosis, and it is said that the Eskimos used the flattened lichen which floated in oil as wicks - the oil burning off the lichen and being continually replaced.