Altitudinal distribution: 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 a grey thallus containing 2’-O-methylperlatolic acid, lecanorate fruiting bodies with a blackish epihymenium reacting K+ violet, and 2-spored asci, based on a type from Wyoming; typically on wood and on bark of conifers in Western North America; the only record from the Alps was terricolous, and based on the recently established synonym P. christae.
