LICHALP

Santessoniella arctophila (Th. Fr.) Henssen

Syn.: Pannaria arctophila Th. Fr., Parmeliella arctophila (Th. Fr.) Malme

Lichenised.

Substrate: , living mosses

Altitudinal distribution: subalpine belt (potential vegetation: open, taiga-like forests dominated by Larix decidua and/or Pinus cembra and Rhododendron)

Note: a circum-arctic-alpine species with a brownish granular thallus becoming gelatinous when wet, brown biatorine apothecia, asci with an amyloid ring structure, and hyaline, ellipsoid ascospores; the generic placement is still unsettled; on slightly calcareous soil and plant debris in snow-bed communities; more common in Northern Europe and with a few records from the Swiss Alps, but perhaps overlooked elsewhere.