LICHALP

Rhizocarpon kakurgon Poelt

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 nival belt (above the lower limit of perennial snow and glaciers)

Note: an arctic to nemoral-alpine (-nival) species related to Rh. viridiatrum, but thallus sulphur-yellow and ascospores smaller (less than 20 µm long) and with fewer cells in optical view; on hard calcareous schists, obligately parasitic on Aspicilia-species (e.g. A. candida, A. mashiginensis); most records are from the Alps but the species was also reported from Greenland.