This is
Dog Lichen and it grows under the same conditions that encourage moss - damp, poorly drained and poorly maintained lawns.
One interesting oddball is the
dog lichen, a leafy-looking organism that's actually a three-way team-up between an alga, a bacterium and a fungus, all working together to ensure mutual survival.
This includes bubble-like Nostoc algae and
dog lichen. They both flourish in badly-drained lawns but can develop wherever the aeration is poor and may even appear on well-drained turf if the surface has become compacted and is inclined to remain damp after rain.
The problem is a form of lichen called
dog lichen (Peltigera spps) that occurs in patches on lawns when there is very poor drainage and surface compaction and treatment with proprietary herbicides will have little or no effect.
Roedd clustiau'r ddaear (Peltigera membranacea;
dog lichen) yn tyfu ar lawr.
Q MY lawns have been overtaken by
dog lichen. What is the best way to treat it as it is now out of control?
The substance you describe is almost certainly
dog lichen. It's often mistaken for a lawn disease, but in fact it's half-fungus and half-algae.
Now, there is a permanent wet spot in the middle of their lawn area, with coarse grasses coming in along with huge amounts of moss and buttercups, despite using proprietary moss and weed killers every spring, and patches of grey-brown
dog lichen are spreading at an alarming rate.
A THE scaly stuff is called
dog lichen. It's often mistaken for a disease symptom, but is actually half-fungus, half algae.
If you add the mosses, algae,
dog lichen and at least six different toadstool species that appear at various times of the year you can begin to see why, after 24 years of this diverse natural mix building up, I am now loath to attempt to clean up my act and turn my lawn into the pristine greensward that the books say I should have.
7 Does your lawn have moss, algal slime and
dog lichen on it for much of the year?
After cutting, check the lawn over for moss,
dog lichen, wet areas and other signs of bad drainage.