Summary:
Features include 1) small, very dark brown to black fruitbodies with a narrow point of attachment, opening at maturity by tearing of the tissue overlying the concave, light yellow to brown spore-bearing surface, 2) consistency that is cartilaginous to leathery when moist, 3) erumpent, scattered or clustered growth on hemlock and spruce, and 4) microscopic characters including filiform-clavate spores. The family position is uncertain, and some authors consider this taxon to be in the family Helotiaceae.
Collections were examined from BC, WA, and AK, (Reid, J.).
Upper surface:
apothecia [sexual fruitbodies] up to 0.4cm across and 0.15cm high, circular to oval, "very dark brown to black at maturity"; opening at maturity by irregular or crenate tearing of the excipulum overlying the spore-bearing surface; spore-bearing surface concave, light yellow to brown
Flesh:
consistency of fruitbody cartilaginous to leathery when moist
Underside:
"very dark brown to black at maturity"
Stem:
narrowed in lower part to a narrow point of attachment, appearing to arise from a black stromatic tissue seated in the host periderm
Microscopic:
spores 35-56(60) x 1.5-2.5 microns, filiform-clavate, broadest near upper end, tapering gradually in lower part to a point, nearly straight to slightly curved, 1-celled, "lying parallel or occasionally spirally coiled along the long axis of the ascus"; asci 8-spored, 100-142 x 5.5-10 microns, "clavate, broadest near apex", conspicuously narrowed in upper part, "then acutely rounded at the apex", pore not turning blue in iodine; paraphyses 1.5-2.5 microns wide, "filamentous, curled, coiled, or recurved", colorless, simple or branched at tips, projecting beyond the asci to form an epithecium
|
