Cladia aggregata (Sw.) Nyl.
Ecuador, 2001, photo H. Sipman.
A widespread lichen on soil in very nutrient-poor, acid sites with scarce vegetation. Often on road banks at high elevations. It has a fruticose, brown, glossy thallus, often several cm tall, with a central cavity and more or less numerous, rounded wall perforations. It reminds of the temperate lichen Cetraria aculeata (Schreb.) Fr., which lacks the perforations.