LICHALP

Verrucaria memnonia (Flot. ex Körb.) Arnold

Syn.: Verrucaria maura Wahlenb. var. memnonia Flot. ex Körb.

Lichenised.

Substrate: siliceous rocks

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 thin, epilithic, spreading thallus of a black colour with a bluish to greenish-blue tinge, turning gelatinous when wet, hemispherically protruding ascomata (to 0.3 mm in diam.) with involucrellum reaching down to the base of the perithecium, and obovoid ascospores (to c. 15 µm long); mostly on hard siliceous rocks in the shade of montane coniferous forests; widespread in the European mountains, with a few scattered records from the Alps.