LICHALP

Lecanora leptacinella Nyl.

Lichenised.

Substrate: living mosses, bark

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 arctic-alpine species with thalli consisting of some scattered, yellowish-white areoles soon giving raise to lecanorine apothecia with brown to blackish discs; muscicolous on moribund mosses (Polytrichum, Rhacomitrium), rarely on other bryophytes or on branches of subalpine shrubs (Rhododendron), often together with Japewia tornoensis and/or Lecidea polytrichinella; in the Alps it might be more widespread, having been perhaps overlooked in some regions.