Cetrelia chicitae W. L. Culb. & C. F. Culb.

Cetrelia chicitae (W. L. Culb.) W. L. Culb. & C. F. Culb. Description. Thallus foliose, heteromerous, dorsiventral, loosely attached, forming wavy, wide-spreading, usually orbicular, wide rosettes. Upper surface glaucous-grey, lower surface black in the central part to brown at the lobe edges. Lobes broad and round, up to 20 mm wide, with raised margins. Pseudocyphellae punctiform to irregularly-shaped on upper surface, which are rather large and usually not raised, also developed in the older, central parts of thallus; pseudocyphellae on lower surface not developed, or appearing as very small white dots. Soralia primarily marginal on strongly twisted lobes, giving the lobe-ends a somewhat nibbled appearance, usually smooth, with coarse soredia (35–55 µm). Lower surface rather regularly ridged, with scattered, simple, black rhizines and a rhizine-free zone along the margin. Never found fertile in Italy. Chemistry. Cortex with atranorin (sometimes in low concentrations); medulla with alectoronic, α-collatolic and physodic acids. Distribution in Italy. Central-eastern Alps (16 specimens from 5 sites): Friuli Venezia Giulia (4 specimens from 2 sites), Veneto (2 specimens from 1 sites), Trentino Alto Adige (1 specimen from 1 site), Lombardia (9 specimens from 1 site). Fig. 2. Habitat. Beech, coniferous or mixed beech-coniferous forests in the montane belt (870–1195 m a. s. l.), moist due to frequent rainfall and / or fog, usually near streams. Phorophytes. Abies alba, Fagus sylvati ca. Literature. Confirmed citations: Friuli Venezia Giulia: Nascimbene et al. (2021); Veneto: Nascimbene et al. (2021). Remarks. This is the rarest Cetrelia species in Italy, which is in accord with the data from the rest of Europe (Obermayer and Mayrhofer 2007; Harrold et al. 2009). It is instead one of the most widespread species in other areas, e. g., North America (Howland and Lendemer 2023) and India (Mishra and Upreti 2015). Specimens examined. See Suppl. material 1.