E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
{See also Dacrymyces Table.} Dacrymyces tortus is relatively common in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, characterized by small, gregarious fruiting bodies, dikaryophyses with clamp connections throughout their length, and slightly curved tardily septate spores. The fruitbodies are amber or dingy yellow when fresh, often with greenish tints, and cushion-shaped to sometimes convoluted. (McNabb 1973). Martin''s description is for Dacrymyces punctiformis Neuhoff which is listed by Ginns as a synonym. Note that Guepiniopsis torta Pat. is a synonym of Guepiniopsis buccina (Pers.: Fr.) Kennedy.

There are collections from BC by R. Bandoni deposited at University of British Columbia (as Dacrymyces punctiformis). D. tortus is found in OR, ID, WA, ON, PQ, AZ, CA, LA, MA, MT, NC, NJ, NM, and NV, (Ginns), Mexico, (Lowy), France, Sweden, United Kingdom, and New Zealand, (McNabb), and Armenia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and Russia, (Raitviir). It is reported from Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Morocco, Japan, (Reid).

Fruiting body:
0.05-0.2cm in diameter, up to 0.2cm high, gregarious, typically discrete, occasionally coalescing to form convoluted areas up to 2cm in extent, at first pustulate, becoming pulvinate [cushion-shaped] and centrally depressed, sometimes convoluted, consistency firm-gelatinous, attached to substrate by central point; amber or dingy yellow when fresh, often with greenish tints, drying dark amber to brown or dull black, (McNabb), 0.05-0.1(0.15)cm, pulvinate [cushion-shaped], then smooth or slightly depressed, firmly gelatinous, sessile or attached by a point, rarely substipitate; pale or sordid yellow when moist, drying dingy brown and inconspicuous, (Martin), frequently appear pallid to almost colorless, (Reid)

Microscopic:
spores (8)10-14(15) x 3.5-4.5(5) microns, "slightly curved-cylindrical, thin-walled with thin septa, faintly tinted, apiculate", "becoming tardily 1-3-septate at maturity", germination by germ tubes; probasidia 25-47 x 3-4.5 microns, cylindric-subclavate, with basal clamp connections, becoming bifurcate; hymenium consisting of basidia and simple cylindric dikaryophyses with 1-3 clamp connections throughout their length; internal hyphae "thin-walled, smooth or roughened, often heavily and irregularly gelatinised, clamp connections present", (McNabb), spores 11-15(17) x 4.5-5 microns, cylindric, curved, "very tardily indistinctly 1-3-septate and producing ovoid or subcylindrical conidia up to 3 x 1.5 microns"; "basidia at maturity 40-70 x 3-3.5 microns, with basal clamps, accompanied by slender, branching paraphyses 50-80 x 1.5-2 microns, with 2-3 septa bearing conspicuous clamp-connections, and protruding beyond the basidia"; "internal hyphae 2 microns in diameter, with conspicuous clamp-connections", (Martin)