LICHALP

Lecidea auriculata Th. Fr. subsp. auriculata

Syn.: Lecidea confoederans Nyl.

Lichenised.

Substrate: siliceous rocks, intermediate rocks (such as calciferous schists)

Altitudinal range: from the montane belt (potential vegetation: deciduous forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica and closed coniferous forests with Picea abies) to the nival belt (above the lower limit of perennial snow and glaciers)

Note: a much misunderstood circumpolar, arctic-alpine species found on siliceous rocks in wind-exposed, sunny situations, in the high-alpine belt of humid mountains; much rarer in the Alps than the closely related L. promiscens.