Micarea turfosa (A. Massal.) Du Rietz

A characteristic boreal lichen of raised peat bogs, where it most often grows on exposed peat and bryophytes in places with fluctuating water level, often near pools, hollows and flarks, where the vegetation of vascular plants is sparse. In similar habitats it overgrows also soaked, slowly decaying wood. Beside raised bogs, the species may be found in azonal communities on humid soils in naturally forestless areas, such as in mountain spring areas, screes or glacial cirques. It has been recorded also on wood of semi-submerged trunks and on semi-submerged boulders in the shores of glacial lakes and on small stones on permanently wet, periodically inundated soil. In suitable conditions, it may become one of the dominants, conspicuous by its black colour. In some mountain raised bogs it grows in a company of the similarly coloured liverwort Gymnocolea inflata, together they may form extensive coatings. The richest Czech localities of M. turfosa are located on the plateaus of the Jizerské hory Mts and the Krkonoše Mts. Locally common the species is also on the plateaus of the Krušné hory Mts and the Šumava Mts. The majority of its localities is situated over 1000 m a.s.l., but in suitable habitats it may occur even lower, such as in the peat bog Mrtvý luh in the Šumava Mts (735 m a.s.l.).

Ascomycota → Lecanoromycetes → Lecanorales → Pilocarpaceae → Micarea