LICHALP

Megalospora pachycarpa (Delise ex Duby) H. Olivier

Syn.: Biatora pachycarpa (Delise ex Duby) Fr., Bilimbia pachycarpa (Delise ex Duby) Boistel, Bombyliospora incana A.L. Sm., Bombyliospora pachycarpa (Delise ex Duby) A. Massal., Megalospora tuberculosa auct. p.p. non (Fée) Sipman, Patellaria pachycarpa Delise ex Duby

Lichenised. Poorly known taxon.

Substrate: bark, living mosses

Altitudinal range: from the submediterranean/colline belt (potential vegetation: mixed deciduous forests dominated by Quercus and Carpinus) to the montane belt (potential vegetation: deciduous forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica and closed coniferous forests with Picea abies)

Note: we treat M. tuberculosa as circumscribed by Sipman, i.e. as an aggregate of taxa, one of which, M. pachycarpa, occurs in Europe and Macaronesia and has a peculiar combination of characters (thallus thick, sorediate but without tubercules, soralia often coalescing, containing usnic acid and zeorin, apothecia brown and with an orange-brown epihymenium). It grows on bark of deciduous trees in humid montane forests under oceanic climatic conditions; in the Alps it is therefore most frequent in the outer mountain ranges.