LICHALP

Gyalecta erythrozona Lettau

Lichenised.

Substrate: intermediate rocks (such as calciferous schists)

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 of the G. leucaspis-group characterised by entire (rather than radially incised) apothecial margins, and elongate-fusiform (rather than acicular) ascospores; it grows on schists containing some calcium on moist, shaded, steep rock faces or under overhangs; widespread in the Holarctic region, in the Central European orobiomes it mostly occurs near or above treeline; in the Alps it is known from several scattered localities, and is evidently rare.