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Species Information
Summary: A notable character is 1) the conspicuous microscopic asterosetae which have 3-6(8) rays up to 150 microns long that are not or only rarely dichotomously branched. Other features include 2) resupinate growth on rotten wood, 3) at cottony to cobwebby consistency, 4) light brown fruitbodies, and 5) spores that are round, smooth, and amyloid. In the absence of a comprehensive description of this species, the notes of Martin, K.J.(3) and Ginns(5) on the species are supplemented below with descriptions of three species synonymized with it.
Asterostroma andinum has been found in BC, NS, AL, DE, FL, IL, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, NM, NY, and SC, (Ginns).
Fruiting body: fruitbodies soft, byssoid [cottony] to arachnoid [cobwebby], (Martin for A. andinum), effused, 1-6cm x 1-4cm, thin, 0.02-0.03cm thick in section; avellaneous when fresh, becoming whitish in the herbarium; the margin thin, cobwebby, (Burt for A. bicolor), effused, 4cm x 2cm, 0.03-0.035cm thick; pale pinkish buff; subiculum avellaneous, (Burt for A. spiniferum), effused, 0.5-1cm across, very thin, 0.015cm thick, cobwebby, delicate; pale olive-buff; not continuous but with the basidia in clusters; subiculum light drab, (Burt for A. gracile)
Microscopic: SPORES 5-6 microns in diameter, round to nearly round, smooth, amyloid; ASTEROSETAE present in subiculum and hymenium, rays of asterohyphidia rarely branched; hyphae simple-septate, (Martin), SPORES 5-7 microns in diameter, round, smooth, amyloid; stellate SETAE with 3-6(8) rays up to 150 microns long that are not or only rarely dichotomously branched, (Breitenbach), SPORES 5-7 microns in diameter, round, smooth, apiculate at the base, white in a spore collection; BASIDIA 4-spored; no CYSTIDIA; STELLATE ELEMENTS rather scattered, colored, with unbranched rays 45-120 microns long and 3.5-4.5 microns wide; hyphae 2-2.5 microns wide, loosely arranged, colorless, (Burt for A. bicolor), SPORES 5-6 microns in diameter, nearly round, smooth, colorless; CYSTIDIA sparingly present, 25 x 5 microns, not encrusted; STELLATE ELEMENTS colored, not densely crowded together, with unbranched rays 50-90 x 6-7 microns usually, "but next to the hymenium having rays perpendicular to the latter, larger than the other rays", up to 130 x 9 microns, "and protruding beyond the basidia up to 110 microns, like setae"; colorless hyphae arranged longitudinally along the substrate "and passing into a loosely arranged layer and becoming intermixed" with the stellate elements, (Burt for A. spiniferum), SPORES 6 microns in diameter, round, smooth, colorless; BASIDIA 15 x 6 microns; CYSTIDIA numerous, 30 x 8 microns, fusoid, not encrusted; STELLATE ELEMENTS with central body 6 microns in diameter and very slender, unbranched rays up to 100-150 x 3-3.5 microns, "often protruding beyond the hymenium up to 45 microns"; hyphae 2-2.5 microns wide, loosely arranged, colorless, (Burt for A. gracilis)
Habitat / Range
on rotten wood; Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple), Picea sp. (spruce), Thuja plicata (Western Red-cedar); associated with a white rot, (Ginns), on rotten wood of both hardwood and coniferous species but more abundant on the latter, August to November, (Burt for A. bicolor, NY to Louisiana and westward to British Columbia), on rotten wood, July, (Burt for A. spiniferum, Puerto Rico), on very rotten hardwood, October in Alabama, (Burt for A. gracile)
Similar Species
Asterostroma cervicolor has tuberculate spores, and the rays of the asterohyphidia are commonly branched, (Martin). Asterostroma laxum also has round, smooth, amyloid spores 5-7 microns in diameter, but it has stellate setae up to about 60 microns in diameter, with 2-4 rays in part dichotomously branched, (Breitenbach).
