LICHALP

Cryptothele rhodosticta (Taylor) Henssen

Syn.: Pyrenopsis rhodosticta (Taylor) Müll. Arg., Verrucaria rhodosticta Taylor

Lichenised.

Substrate: 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 alpine belt (potential vegetation: treeless Alpine grasslands and tundras, to the lower limit of perennial snow and the equilibrium line of glaciers)

Note: a species with a crustose, areolate, dark reddish brown thallus and immersed perithecioid ascomata with an amyloid hymenial gel and cylindrical, thin-walled asci with attenuated apices containing simple, ellipsoid ascospores; on periodically submerged siliceous rocks near lakes and streams; rare in (North)Western Europe; records from the Alps have an atypical ecology and therefore need verification.