LICHALP

Gyalideopsis helvetica van den Boom & Vězda

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 and scattered, excavate soralia, apothecia (when present) reddish-brown, with submuriform, fusiform ascospores in mostly 4-spored asci; it grows on fallen, decorticated tree trunks; widespread in the Holarctic region but altogether rare, with a few scattered records from the Alps.