[Translated and modified from Motyka (1936-1938)] Thallus fruticose, 6-7 cm high, suberect or subpendulous, bushy, firm, and rigid, dirty glaucous green, opaque; base distinct, thick, rigid, blackened, just above the peduncle is densely, dichotomous and subsympodially divergently branched. Primary branches flexuously curved, the base up to 1.5 mm thick just above its largest part distinctly thinner, continuous and only simply broken, irregularly tuberculate and papillate; papillae partly larger, partly thinner, very short, spinuliferous, concolorous; branches thinner and dark, rarely coarsely tuberculate, often transversely broken. Secondary branches irregularly arranged, medium, slightly tapering at the base, very slightly irregularly thickened in the middle, tapering, obtuse, densely branched, obscuring tips. Thallus stratified: cortex olivaceous, ~40 μm thick; medulla white, 150 μm thick; axis unpigmented, 340 μm diam. Ascomata lecanorine apothecia occasional, terminal on branch tips; disk pale; margin fringed with thalline-colored cilia.
Distribution. Eastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.
Note. This species is similar to U. strigosa morphologically; is distinguished by blackened base and annular cracks on branches.
Literature
Hinds, J.W. & P. L. Hinds (2007) The Macrolichens of New England. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden No. 96. New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, New York. 584 pp.
Motyka, J. (1936-1938) Lichenum generis Usnea studium monographicum, pars systematica1-2: 1-651.
Stirton, J. 1881. On the genus Usnea, and another (Eumitra) allied to it. Scottish Naturalist6: 99-109 (original description).