LICHALP

Verrucaria discernenda Zschacke

Syn.: Amphoridium caesiopsilum sensu Arnold non (Anzi) Arnold nec Verrucaria caesiopsila Anzi

Lichenised. Poorly known taxon.

Substrate: calciferous rocks

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 species resembling in habitus V. caesiopsila sensu Arnold, but with larger ascospores, with an endolithic thallus indicated by whitish-grey patches, ascomata (to 0.3 mm in diam.) deeply immersed in the rock with only the hardly protruding black ostioles visible, more or less spherical in section, the wall dark brown throughout, 8-spored asci, and broadly ellipsoid, simple ascospores (22-30 × 14-18 μm); on carbonatic rocks (e.g. dolomite), with a few records from Central Europe, in the Alps only known from the type locality (Italy).