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

Hypomyces cervinigenus Rogerson & Simms
no common name
Hypocreaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi

© Cheryl Hoyle  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #23683)

E-Flora BC Static Map
Distribution of Hypomyces cervinigenus
Click here to view our interactive map and legend
Details about map content are available here
Click on the map dots to view record details.

Species Information

Summary:
Features include 1) a white covering formed on Helvella species, the covering becoming pinkish brown to cocoa brown, 2) an anamorph that is common, and forms two kinds of asexual spores, and a teleomorph that is rare (with asci and ascospores), 3) ascospores that are less than 25 microns long (with acute not apiculate ends), smooth, and 2-celled, and 4) perithecia that are waxy, and white to pale buff. The current name in the online Species Fungorum, accessed September 6, 2017, was Hypomyces cervinus Tul. & C. Tul. but the current name on MycoBank, accessed the same day, was Hypomyces cervinigenus Rogerson & Simms.

The type is from WA. Distribution and records include BC, WA, Europe (including Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, Norway), Japan, Kazakhstan, (Poldmaa), and CA (MykoWeb). There is a collection from AK at the University of Washington.
Fruiting body:
a soft, tomentose to finely pubescent mould-like covering, "white, becoming pinkish to cream-buff", powdery when old, parasitizing stem and cap tissue of the host, (MykoWeb), subiculum white, not changing color in KOH, texture hyphal; the anamorph in nature "starts as a white mycelium that during the production of chlamydospores turns into powdery cocoa-brown layer that usually expands over the whole fruitbody of the host", (Poldmaa), subiculum "white, at first loose and cottony, becoming compacted into a mat" (as perithecia appear), perithecia separate to densely compacted in patches up to 1 square centimeter, "usually with base immersed in host tissue", when fresh white and translucent with a waxy appearance, when dry and when old light yellow, buff, or amber, (Rogerson)
Microscopic:
two types of asexual SPORES: 1) aleuriospores 13.5-17.5 microns in diameter including ornamentation, round, spiny, thick-walled, "joined to a secondary, thin-walled, more or less hemispheric cell", in deposit the aleuriospores are pinkish buff, 2) conidia: 14.0-25.5 x 4.0-5.0 microns, cylindric-elliptic, smooth, thin-walled, contents granular or with one to several oil droplets, some centrally septate; ascospores and perithecia rare, according to Rogerson & Simms spores (15)18-22(26) x 2-4(5) microns, subfusiform, smooth, at maturity typically 1-septate, the ends pointed, not apiculate, (MykoWeb), CONIDIUM (6)12-22 x 3-5(6) microns, "fusiform, equilateral, with basal hilum absent", 0-1(3)-septate, conidiogenous locus "with no proliferation observed, forming 1-3 conidia that are held in heads", CONIDIOGENOUS CELLS "usually borne directly from aerial or submerged hyphae", by 1(2) in a verticil, 55-140 microns long, 2-2.5 microns wide at base, proliferation not observed, CONIDIOPHORES hardly or not differentiated from aerial hyphae; ASCOSPORES 14-22(26) x 3-4(5) microns, fusiform or naviculate [boat-shaped], smooth, "ends nonapiculate, the upper end usually acute and the base obtuse", "1-septate (with the septum often obscured) or aseptate, septum median or submedian"; ASCUS (100)115-125(140) x 2-3(4.5) microns; with apex thickened (about 2 microns), penetrated by a pore; PERITHECIA "gregarious to scattered, semi-immersed in the subiculum", (165)250-350(385) x (130)165-200(265) microns, "buff or light yellow, KOH reaction absent", perithecial wall 10-12 microns wide, perithecial papillae 45-100 microns high, 45-60(75) microns wide at base, "tip obtuse, of hyphal texture, with cells not forming differentiated regions", surface cells 1-2 microns in diameter; SUBICULAR HYPHAE 2-3 microns wide, loosely interwoven (at first) or densely compacted (when perithecia are formed), (Poldmaa), ASCOSPORES 22(26) x (1.5)2-4(5) microns, "fusiform to spindle-shaped, sometimes curved", (usually acute at the apices but often with lower end obtuse), smooth, colorless, cytoplasm usually vacuolate, 1 or 2 celled, septum often obscured, lower cell often narrower and smaller than upper cell, septum median or submedian, spores obliquely uniseriate; ASCUS 8-spored, filling the centrum, "frequently protruding from the ostiole", (100)115-125(142) x 2-3(4.5) microns, long and linear, thin-walled except at obtuse apex, apex forming a thickened cap, 1-2 microns thick, with a distinct pore (staining with cotton blue in lacto-phenol, not staining in Melzer''s reagent) visible in young asci, contracted at base, then swollen and foot-like, pore obscured as spores mature, the acute apex of upper spore protruding into the pore; PERIPHYSES 15-20 x 2 microns, filamentous, "obtuse at apex, curved upward, lining the ostiolar canal", "apical paraphyses present in early stages, disappearing as asci form"; PERITHECIUM (165)250-350(385) x (132)165-200(265) microns, spherical-ovate to spherical-papillate, frequently collapsing laterally, papilla obtuse to truncate, 45-90(100) x 45-62(75) microns, wall 10-12 microns thick, irregularly pseudoparenchymatous in face view, cells thin-walled, irregularly elongate and prosenchymatous up to 15 x 6 microns, with 4-5 layers in longitudinal section, "becoming filamentous and parallel at the papilla", "papilla with an outside layer of irregular cells covered by a zone of amorphous, small, contracted, hyphal cells creating a waxy appearance"; SUBICULUM hyphae less than 3 microns wide, branched, colorless, septate, "disappearing as perithecia become compacted", (Rogerson)

Habitat / Range

parasitic on Helvella species, especially Helvella lacunosa; fruiting from mid to late winter, (MykoWeb), growing on fungi; hosts belonging to Pezizales: Helvella spp., including H. elastica, H. ephippium, and H. lacunosa; covering cap of host or both cap and stem; host''s fruitbody becomes decayed, (Poldmaa)

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Fomitopsis pinicola (misapplied name)

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Range and Status Information Links

Additional Photo Sources

Related Databases

Species References

Rogerson(4), Poldmaa(2), MykoWeb(1), Desjardin(6)*

References for the fungi

General References