Within Cladonia cervicornis, currently three taxa are accepted in western Europe, viz. ssp. cervicornis, ssp. verticillata and ssp. pulvinata. Co-occurrences of two or even all three taxa are quite frequent and have been observed by the authors in the field in numerous localities in the Netherlands as well as other European countries. We tested the hypothesis that all three taxa can be recognized at species level. Even in mosaics, single thalli of ssp. cervicornis and ssp. verticillata could be determined with certainty especially by colour, incision and orientation of the basal squamules. Ssp. pulvinata deviates from both ssp. cervicornis and verticillata in its persistently slender podetia with only few proliferations as well as the presence of psoromic acid instead of fumarprotocetraric acid. We propose to accept the three taxa of the Cladonia cervicornis-group as species, viz. C. cervicornis s.str., C. verticillata (Hofftn.) Schaerer and Cladonia pulvinata comb, et stat. nova, which has not been raised to specific level before