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Species Information
Summary: Features include minute, translucent-white cups on fern stems, hairs on margin and exterior, absent or inconspicuous stem, and microscopic characters including small rod-like spores and lanceolate paraphyses. Dennis(3) described Dasyscypha washingtonensis from part of the type collection of Hyalopeziza pteridis Kanouse Mycologia 39: 660. 1947 (= Lachnella pteridicola Seaver) - he emphasized the broadly lanceolate (not filiform) paraphyses which would not be consistent with Hyalopeziza, but he did not exclude the remote possibility of a mixed collection. Albotricha washingtonensis is not to be confused with Lachnella pteridis Phill., the name that forced the change of epithet to pteridicola when Seaver moved the species from Hyalopeziza to Lachnella. According to Haines(1), this is a common species in the spring in western Washington, "but it is easily overlooked due to its small size. It is only known from the fern Pteridium aquilinum.".
A. washingtonensis was described from WA, and is found also in Europe. There are 2 collections by O. Ceska from BC at the University of British Columbia.
Upper surface: about 0.03cm across, slightly concave, margin fringed with hairs, (Dennis), 0.1-0.2cm across, "yellowish white, often with a green tinge, with distinctively hairy margin", (Hansen, L.(1)), fruitbody about 0.02cm across, cup-shaped, translucent white, (Seaver), fruitbody 0.0175-0.02cm across, 0.0075cm high (including base), cup-shaped, translucent, (Kanouse), up to 0.02cm across, up to 0.025cm high, cup-shaped, white (even when dry); appearing bald except for a small fringe of hairs near margin, disc remaining exposed even when dry, (Haines(1))
Underside: white, villose, (Dennis), hyaline-white from hairs (Kanouse),
Stem: substipitate (Dennis), without a stem to substipitate (Seaver), with a short stem (Haines(1))
Microscopic: spores 5-7 x 0.75-1 microns, bacillar, biseriate; asci 8-spored, 33 x 5 microns, cylindro-clavate; paraphyses 55 x 4-5 microns, broadly lanceolate [wider in middle and tapered at both ends], apices acute, extending beyond the asci; hairs septate, tapering to an acute tip, thickening at the base to about 5 microns, (Dennis), spores 6-8 x 1-1.5 microns, clavate to fusoid; asci 27-35 x 4-6 microns; paraphyses 4-5 microns wide, up to 20 microns exceeding the asci; marginal hairs up to 75 microns long and 2-2.5 microns wide, colorless, (Hansen, L.), spores 4-5.5 x 0.75-1 microns, bacilloid; asci 8-spored, reaching a length of 30-35 microns and a width of 4.5 microns; paraphyses filiform; hairs reaching a length of 75 microns, and width of 6 microns, hyaline-white, rough, (Seaver), spores 4-5.5 x 0.75-1 microns, rod-like, straight, colorless, one-celled; asci 8-spored, 30-35 x 4.5 microns, cylindric-clavate, spores obliquely arranged in the asci, ascus pore blue with iodine; paraphyses filiform; exciple composed of small prismatic cells from which arise long, rough, colorless, septate hairs 75 microns long and 6 microns wide at the widest (middle) part, (Kanouse), spores 4-8 x 1-2.5 microns, "mostly clavate-fusiform, slightly curved, somewhat variable in shape, size and appearance of contents, often with a variable number of refractive droplets, non-septate or rarely with a single pseudoseptum, irregularly biseriate in the ascus"; asci 8-spored, 4-5 x 20-25 microns, colorless, thin-walled, tip slightly conical, pore plug very large but visible only at maturity; paraphyses 30-40 x 3-4 microns, exceeding asci by up to 5-10 microns, "broadly lanceolate ending in a small slightly rounded tip, non-septate, thin-walled", colorless "with granular appearing contents"; hairs 10-35 x 4-5 microns, scarce, "tapering to a fine point at the tip", colorless, sparsely covered with large, irregular granules up to 2 microns in diameter, thin-walled, "usually adhering to one another, occurring only near the edge of the cup, multiseptate", septa forming cells 7-10 microns long, "often with refractive, granular-appearing contents"; excipulum of thin-walled, colorless, short-cylindric to isodiametric cells up to 10 microns long, (Haines(1))
Habitat / Range
sparse, superficial, (Dennis), on Dryopteris fern (Hansen, L., for northern Europe), single on stems of Pteris sp. (a fern), (Seaver), on old stems of Pteris (in another part of the description on fern leaves), (Kanouse), only known from the fern Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern) [at least in western Washington], common in spring, (Haines(1))
Similar Species
The key in Haines(1) for western Washington differentiates Albotricha albotestacea on the basis that its hairs are over 75 microns long whereas the hairs in A. washingtonensis are less than 50 microns long. Albotricha albotestacea is known from grasses and sedges and has a reddish brown fruitbody. On fern habitat, there are several other cup fungi in the Pacific Northwest. O. Ceska deposited Albotricha laetior from British Columbia at the University of British Columbia.
