LICHALP

Gyalideopsis piceicola (Nyl.) Vězda & Poelt

Syn.: Gyalecta piceicola (Nyl.) Arnold, Gyalidea piceicola (Nyl.) Lettau, Lecidea piceicola Nyl.

Lichenised.

Substrate: bark, lignum

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 smooth, greyish-green, glossy thallus, minute, reddish- to blackish-brown apothecia, and 4-spored asci with submuriform, fusiform ascospores; on twigs of conifers (mostly Picea) in montane forests with frequent fog, usually in the lowermost canopy; widespread in the Holarctic region; in the Alps only known from scattered localities, but perhaps overlooked because of its very special ecology.