Image of pulvinate chalice lichen

Description:

Habitat: Scree slopes with boulders under southwest slopes of a mountain, fully exposed to sun, partly protected against direct rain, precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, elevation 400 m (1.300 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: calcareous boulder, in a crevice, vertically oriented. - Comment: Determination highly uncertain. Based on field characters only. E. pulvinatum is not mentioned in U. Suppan, J. Pruegger, and H. Mayrhofer, The Catalogue of the lichenized and lichenicolous fungi of Slovenia, Lichen biodiversity in Slovenia (2000), Uni. Graz, (http://members.chello.at/johannes.pruegger/uni/slovenia/ ). Description: Squamules from concave elliptic to almost round in cross-section, mostly the broadest in the upper part, all around with a thin, dark, almost black, quite hard cortex and a thin but distinct, vivid green, alga layer beneath. Inside is filled with a whitish, rather loose net of hyphae fibers. Peritecia mouths can not be seen by 10x magnifier. Ref.: I.Brodo, S.Sharnoff, S.Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p308.