LICHALP

Verrucaria bryoctona (Th. Fr.) Orange

Syn.: Thelidium bryoctonum Th. Fr.

Lichenised.

Substrate: calciferous soil

Altitudinal range: from the montane belt (potential vegetation: deciduous forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica and closed coniferous forests with Picea abies) to the subalpine belt (potential vegetation: open, taiga-like forests dominated by Larix decidua and/or Pinus cembra and Rhododendron)

Note: a species with a greyish green, granular thallus consisting of goniocysts (to c. 40 µm in diam.), subspherical ascomata without involucrellum, partly immersed in the substrate (to c. 0.3 mm in diam.), and narrowly ellipsoid ascospores (to c. 30 µm long) often with small terminal gelatinous appendages, becoming 1-septate with age; on basic soil and terricolous moribund bryophytes; widespread in Western Europe, with a few records from the Eastern Alps (Austria).