Altitudinal distribution: alpine belt (potential vegetation: treeless Alpine grasslands and tundras, to the lower limit of perennial snow and the equilibrium line of glaciers)
Note: similar to G. scutellaris, but apothecia markedly smaller (less than 0.4 mm diam.) and with smaller muriform ascospores (≤ 20 µm); on acid to subneutral debris; rare in the European orobiomes, with a single record from the Eastern Alps (Austria).
