LICHALP

Verrucaria alpicola Zschacke

Lichenised.

Substrate: ,

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 of the V. elaeomelaena-group with a thin, continuous, epilithic, dark brown to nearly black thallus which is rimose only around the ascomata, in section view the upper cortex with a dark brown to black pigment and partly with a black basal layer, ascomata protruding from the thallus and covered by thin thalline layer, with a brown exciple and a laterally spreading involucrellum reaching the base of the perithecia, and with narrowly ellipsoid ascospores (to c. 35 µm long); a typically sub-aquatic species which often occurs in the splash water zone in streams, but also at temporarily inundated sites in springs, both on calcareous and on siliceous rocks, in sunny to moderately shaded sites, mostly in upland areas; probably more widespread in the Alps.