LICHALP

Lecidea subconfluens Anzi

Lichenised. Poorly known taxon.

Substrate: siliceous rocks

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: there is much confusion over the description of this species; to our knowledge, the first mention at species level provided with a description is in Anzi (Symbola Lichenum Rariorum etc. 1864: 18) which pre-dates that of another taxon with the same epithet described by Th. Fries made by H. Olivier (1881); the species, which differs from L. confluens in the thallus with pale areoles, the presence of a prothallus, and the faintly grey-pruinose apothecia, has thin paraphyses with a brownish tip and narrowly ellipsoid, obtuse ascospores with a thin episporium, measuring 12-15 × 5-7 µm.