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: an extremely rare and often misidentified silicicolous species resembling Rh. pusillum, but with an amyloid medulla; the type is parasitic on Tremolecia atrata; known with certainty only from Norway, the only record from the Alps needs confirmation.
