Image of Chippendale stubble

Description:

Syn.: Calicium abietinum f. glaucellum (Ach.) Erichsen, Calicium abietinum var. glaucellum (Ach.) Vain., Calicium lenticulare f. chlorodes (Nyl.) Zahlbr., Calicium lenticulare var. chlorodes (Nyl.) Erichsen, Calicium quercinum f. chlorodes Nyl., - Habitat: Mixed mountain forest, Picea abies and Fagus sylvatica dominant trees; bottom of an Alpine valley, locally almost flat terrain; alluvial, calcareous grpind; partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies; average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 4-6 deg C, elevations 1.040 m (3.400 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: decorticated, still standing truck of a dead Picea abies. Comment: Genus Calicium includes very unusually looking lichens. They have crustose thallus, which is sometimes immersed in the substratum or very thin, so it is many times hardly invisible. Contrary to this their apothecia are elevated above the thallus mostly with long, distinct stalk. Here 'distinct' mean distinct under a magnifying glass. They are very, very small, usually less than 1 mm tall and hence not easy to spot. Pictures most probably show species Calicium glaucellum. Size of the shiny black, stalked apothecia, obovoid to weakly bell-shaped apothecia, very thin, almost invisible grayish thallus, absence of pruina (minute whitish covering on some lichens), the ratio of sporocarp height to stalk diameter and substratum speak in favor of Calicium glaucellum. Quite some time I was unable to decide between two possible names: Calicium abietinum and Calicium glaucellum. Sporocarps seem to have too thin stalks compared to their height for Calicium abietinum. Also no pruina was seen. Finally, I found out that Index Fungorum considers both names as synonyms in spite of the fact that most of my literature considers both names as separate species. Obviously they must be quite variable. Obviously microscopy data would make this determination much more reliable. According to Ref.4 and Ref.5 the species has been found in Slovenia several times, also in East Julian Alps (Ref.7). Ref.: (1) F.S. Dobson, Lichens, The Richmonds Publishing Ca.LTD (2005), p 91. (2) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland, The British Lichen Society, (2009), p 243. (3) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Wrttembergs, Teil.1., Ulmer (1995), p 204. (4) Prgger et all. 'Alphabetical list of lichenized fungi for the six phytogeographical regions of Slovenia', http://members.chello.at/johannes.pruegger/uni/slovenia/ (accessed 9.1.2018) (5) Boletus Informaticus Database, Forestry Institute of Slovenia http://www.zdravgozd.si/bi_index.aspx (accessed 9.1.2018) (6) http://www.waysofenlichenment.net/lichens/Calicium/ (accessed 9.1.2018) (7) F. Bati, K. Primoi, B. Surina, T. Trot & H. Mayzhofer, Contributions to the lichen flora of Slovenia X. - Contributions to the lichen flora from the Slovenian Julian Alps, Herzogia 16, (2003): 143154