LICHALP

Protoparmelia nephaea (Sommerf.) R. Sant.

Syn.: Lecanora atrocincta Th. Fr., Lecanora nephaea Sommerf.

Lichenised.

Substrate: metal-rich siliceous rocks, siliceous rocks

Altitudinal range: from the subalpine belt (potential vegetation: open, taiga-like forests dominated by Larix decidua and/or Pinus cembra and Rhododendron) 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 species with a thallus of scattered subumbilicate areoles developing on a distinct black prothallus, usually sterile, but with dark blue thalloconidia on the lower side of the free margin of the areoles, containing substances of the stictic acid syndrome; on vertical to overhanging rock faces of metal-rich siliceous rocks; overall distribution arctic-alpine to boreal-montane, with a few records from the Eastern Alps, but probably overlooked elsewhere.