Image of cup lichen

Description:

Habitat: Overgrown rocky base of scree slops, partly in shade, northwest oriented, humid air, fully exposed to precipitations, precipitations ~3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, elevation 350 m (1.150 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: on mossy thin soil covered calcareous rocks Ch.: primary squamules and podetia K-, P- Description: Podetia 20 to 30 mm high, 0.8 to 1.8 mm in diameter, gradually thinner toward tips. Their surface uniformly and densely farinose or granular almost from the base to the tip (sorediate ?). At the base, up to 15-30% of their height, distinctly squamulous (sometimes up to the tip), at the base among squamules rarely areolate corticate. Most of the tips pointed with a brown red pyknidia., only rarely forming a small, often distorted, cup with 3 to 5 pyknidia, which have only slightly larger or the same diameter as podetia. Podetia grow from a cluster of larges primary squamules, not from a surface of a large squamule. Most of podetia +/- curved at tips, larger ones usually having one to three side branches (never dichotomously forked). Some podetia have a longitudinal crack in their surface.