LICHALP

Lecidea alpestris Sommerf.

Lichenised. Poorly known taxon.

Substrate: acidic soil (mostly on siliceous substrata), living mosses

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: a circumpolar, arctic-alpine lichen found on naked soil, mosses and plant debris over siliceous substrata, more rarely on bark, on basal parts of conifers in the subalpine belt. Systematic position and delimitation of this species are still not clear.