LICHALP

Protothelenella petri H. Mayrhofer & Poelt

Lichenised.

Substrate: living mosses

Altitudinal range: from the montane belt (potential vegetation: deciduous forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica and closed coniferous forests with Picea abies) 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 an inconspicuous thallus, minute perithecia (less than 200 µm in diam.), and ellipsoid muriform ascospores with usually 5 transversal septa and 1-2 longitudinal septa (usually less than 25 µm long); on the upper side of leaflets of Polytrichum, easily overlooked when the moss is dry and the leaflets enrolled; overall distribution arctic-alpine to boreal-montane, but apparently rare, with a few scattered records throughout the Alps.