LICHALP

Diploschistes muscorum (Scop.) R. Sant.

Syn.: Diploschistes bryophiloides (Nyl.) Zahlbr., Diploschistes bryophilus (Ehrh. ex Ach.) Zahlbr., Diploschistes lichenicola (Mont. & Fr.) Vain., Diploschistes scruposus (Schreb.) Norman subsp. muscorum (Scop.) Clauzade & Cl. Roux, Diploschistes scruposus (Schreb.) Norman var. arenarius (Ach.) Müll. Arg., Diploschistes scruposus (Schreb.) Norman var. bryophilus (Ehrh. ex Ach.) Müll. Arg., Diploschistes scruposus (Schreb.) Norman var. parasiticus (Sommerf.) Zahlbr., Lichen impressus Sw., Lichen muscorum Scop., Melittiosporum lichenicola (Mont. & Fr.) Massee, Stictis lichenicola Mont. & Fr., Urceolaria bryophila (Ehrh.) Funck, Urceolaria bryophiloides Nyl., Urceolaria scruposa (Schreb.) Ach. var. arenaria Schaer.

Lichenised.

Substrate: parasitic on other lichens, living mosses, calciferous soil

Altitudinal range: from the mesomediterranean belt (potential vegetation: evergreen broad-leaved forests dominated by Quercus ilex) to the alpine belt (potential vegetation: treeless Alpine grasslands and tundras, to the lower limit of perennial snow and the equilibrium line of glaciers)

Note: a holarctic lichen, often - but apparently not always - parasitic on Cladonia squamules (especially C. pocillum and C. symphycarpa, sometimes also on the podetia of C. rangiformis), generally on mosses and plant debris in dry grasslands on limestone, with a wide altitudinal range. Not always distinguished from D. diacapsis in the older literature and related to D. scruposus; widespread throughout the Alps.