Micarea incrassata Hedl.

Bih. K. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl., Afd. 3, 18: 82, 1892.
Synonyms:
Distribution: N - TAA (Bilovitz & al. 2014b).
Description: Thallus crustose, episubstratic, consisting of white to grey-brown, convex, confluent areoles, usually with brown cephalodia resembling areoles and containing Nostoc. Apothecia micareoid, black, 0.3-1 mm across, partly immersed, with a convex disc, without a proper margin. Proper exciple indistinct; epithecium scarcely differentiated from the hymenium, greenish, K-, N+ red; hymenium colourless in lower part, greenish in upper part, 45-50 μm high, the pigmented parts N+ red; paraphyses numerous, sparingly branched, (1-)1.5-2 μm thick at mid-level, the apical cells to 3 μm wide; hypothecium dark reddish brown, 150-400 μm high, K- N+ bright orange-brown. Asci 8-spored, clavate to cylindrical-clavate, with an unstained wall and a K/I+ blue outer layer and apical dome, the latter with a non-amyloid, cylindrical axial mass. Ascospores 0-1(-2) septate, hyaline, ellipsoid to elongate-fusiform, (10-)12-17 x 4-5 μm. Pycnidia rare, black, immersed, the wall dark green in upper part, reddish brown at base. Conidia bacilliform, 6-9 μm long. Photobiont micareoid, the cells 4-7 μm in diam. Spot tests: K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances.
Note: a widespread circumboreal species also known from the Southern Hemisphere, growing on acid soil in mountain heaths; apparently rare in the Alps, but perhaps overlooked.
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris
Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

Commonnes-rarity: (info)

Alpine belt: extremely rare
Subalpine belt: extremely rare
Oromediterranean belt: absent
Montane belt: rare
Submediterranean belt: absent
Padanian area: absent
Humid submediterranean belt: absent
Humid mediterranean belt: absent
Dry mediterranean belt: absent

pH of the substrata:

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Solar irradiation:

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Aridity:

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Eutrophication:

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Poleotolerance:

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Altitudinal distribution:

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Predictive model


Curtis Randall Björk CC BY-SA 4.0
British Columbia, Whistler, apex of the Seventh Heaven ski run Date: 2007-08-00 Photographed from specimen (Björk 14788, UBC), among rocks on windblown ridge



Curtis Randall Björk – CC BY-SA 4.0
British Columbia, Whistler, apex of the Seventh Heaven ski run Date: 2007-08-00 Photographed from specimen (Björk 14788, UBC), among rocks on windblown ridge