Altitudinal distribution: subalpine belt (potential vegetation: open, taiga-like forests dominated by Larix decidua and/or Pinus cembra and Rhododendron)
Note: a variety with squamules as in subsp. tristis, but with a brown epithecium, a hypothecium lacking orange pigments, and simple ascospores; on soil in seasonally dry open situations; widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, with a single record from the Eastern Alps (Austria).
