LICHALP

Sarcogyne distinguenda Th. Fr.

Lichenised.

Substrate: calciferous rocks, intermediate rocks (such as calciferous schists)

Altitudinal range: from the montane belt (potential vegetation: deciduous forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica and closed coniferous forests with Picea abies) to the subalpine belt (potential vegetation: open, taiga-like forests dominated by Larix decidua and/or Pinus cembra and Rhododendron)

Note: a species with a thin to rimose, greyish-white thallus, and sessile, black apothecia covered by a bluish-white pruina, with a relatively high hymenium and broadly ellipsoid to subspherical ascospores; on outcrops of limestone and calcareous sandstone, widespread in Europe but relatively rare, also in the Alps.