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: an arctic-alpine silicicolous species which starts the life-cycle on other crustose lichens, more widespread in Scandinavia than in the Alps, where it mostly occurs above treeline. The species does not belong to Protoparmelia s.str.
