Thompson, J., 1984. American Arctic Lichens: The Macrolichens.
Pseudopodetia erect, caespitose or dispersed, fragile, irregularly branched, the base dying, 2.5-4.0 mm tall, 1.0 mm thick, white, lacking tomentum, the apices with soralia 0.5-1.3 mm broad; phyllocladia sparse, mainly in the lower part of the pseudopodetia, broadly squamulose and digitate branched, white, unlike those of S. rivulorum (another fragile species), the soralia abundant, terminal, white, densely grouped, globose, the soredia farinose; cephalodia sparse, minute, 0.5 mm broad, inconspicuous, lateral on the pseudopodetia, subglobose, slightly verruculose to nearly smooth, pale brownish, containing Nostoc or Stigonema. Apothecia not known.
Reactions: K+ yellow, P+ pale yellow.
Contents: atranorin and lobaric acid.
This species is reported as growing in heath or grassland and is known with certainty only from west Greenland and Iceland. A poorly developed uncertain specimen from Sweden was also seen by Lamb (1977).
This species is similar to S. capitellatum but with fragile pseudopodetia with dying bases and a very different chemistry.