(Réacheminé) Irish moss /sea moss - Reindeer moss ?

[martin at CUSLM.CA]

I use to say to my students that the lichen used to imitate trees in scale
model in architecture for example is _Cladina stellaris_ (Opiz) Brodo and
that the Reindeer Moss is precisely _Cladina rangiferina_ (L.) Harm. (do
reindeers know that ?).  Morever, Mason E. Hale in his 'How to know the
lichens' tells us that _Cladina evansii_ (Abb.) Hale & Culb. is used the
same way than _Cladina stellaris_.

Martin

from Robin Kennedy :

> Around here we call the Cladonia sp. used in model railroad scenery
> "reindeer moss" -- maybe that somehow  morphed into "sea moss".

> And "Irish moss" has always served me, in teaching general botany, as a
> good example of the confusion that common names cause, since it >
("Irish
> moss") is indeed, Chondrus crispus, a red alga.