Thallus of this lichen consists of thick, yellowish to pale orange (apricot-like), often glossy areoles, which become brown later in herbarium. The diagnostic metabolite is alectorialic acid (KC+ red; older herbarium specimens often stain the paper pink). The black, marginless apothecia are more or less immersed in the thallus.
Calvitimela armeniaca is an arctic-alpine species of exposed siliceous rocks and stones. It may facultatively parasite on Sporastatia testudinea when young (Nimis et al. 2018). In central Europe, the Alps and Carpathians are centres of its distribution. The lichen is rare in the Czech Republic, appears only in the upper parts of the Krkonoše and Hrubý Jeseník Mountains, and even here relatively sparsely.
Literature: Nimis P. L., Hafellner J., Roux C., Clerc P., Mayrhofer H., Martellos S. & Bilovitz P. O. (2018): The lichens of the Alps – an annotated checklist. – Mycokeys 31: 1–634.
taxonomic classification:Ascomycota → Lecanoromycetes → Lecanorales → Tephromelataceae → Calvitimela
Red List (Liška & Palice 2010):VU – vulnerable
Red List (Malíček 2023):C1 – critically endangered
Occurrence in the Czech Republic
All records: 11, confirmed 11. One click on a selected square displays particular record(s), including their source(s).