LICHALP

Polyblastia epigaea A. Massal.

Lichenised. Poorly known taxon.

Substrate: plant debris, calciferous soil

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 terricolous taxon in need of critical re-evaluation because the ascomata are rather small for a Polyblastia and the muriform ascospores are given as brown in the protologue and hyaline in consecutive treatments. If the statements in the protologue (“thallus verrucoso-squamulosus sordide fuscus, … sporidia…fusca”) are correct, the species could belong to Agonimia, or the description could refer to a lichenicolous fungus; based on a type from Switzerland, other records from the Alps are dubious.