LICHALP

Rhizocarpon vorax Poelt & Hafellner

Lichenised.

Substrate:

Altitudinal range: from the subalpine belt (potential vegetation: open, taiga-like forests dominated by Larix decidua and/or Pinus cembra and Rhododendron) 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 rare boreal-montane to nemoral-alpine species resembling Rh. schedomyces in the mainly endothalline thallus, but ascospores muriform (with 3-5 transversal septa and 1-2 incomplete longitudinal septa, 10-15 cells visible in optical view); on weakly calciferous schists or basic siliceous rocks, obligately parasitic on Pertusaria-species, with a few records from the Eastern Alps only (Austria).