LICHALP

Sarea difformis (Fr.) Fr.

Syn.: Biatorella difformis (Fr.) Vain., Peziza difformis Fr., Tromera difformis (Fr.) Arnold, Tromera sarcogynoides A. Massal. ex Arnold nom.illeg.

Non- or doubtfully lichenised.

Substrate: resin

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 non-lichenised discomycete with minute brown-black apothecia (to 1 mm in diam.) developing on a subiculum, with polyspored asci and spherical ascospores (2-3 µm in diam.), sometimes accompanied or replaced by an anamorphic brown-black pycnidial state with spherical, pale brown conidia; growing on the resinous exudates of coniferous trees in rather shaded and humid situations, sometimes also found on bark at the base of the trunks of old Abies and Picea in montane forests; widespread in the Holarctic region, both in Europe and in North America; in the Alps not rare, but easier to be overlooked than the more conspicuous Tromera resinae.