LICHALP

Nephroma helveticum Ach.

Lichenised.

Substrate: bark

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 cool-temperate to southern boreal-montane, circumpolar lichen found on bark, exceptionally on siliceous rocks in humid, but somehow subcontinental upland areas; probably more widespread in the Alps, but never common, and strongly declining.