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Species Information
Summary: Features include a minute white cup thickly set on exterior and margin with white hairs, white hairy stem, growth on dead branches, twigs, canes, wood, cones, nutshells and plant stems, and microscopic characters including conspicuous lanceolate paraphyses. Haines(1) described a provisional variety exiguus in his Master''s thesis which occurs on Pteridium aquilinum sensu lato (bracken fern) in Washington and is distinctly smaller in all its features including hairs (up to 50 microns), asci (30-35 microns), spores (5-8 x 1-1.5 microns), and paraphyses (4-5 microns wide, up to 15 microns longer than asci). The cup is up to 0.05cm across, stem up to 0.1cm long. Haines says that Dennis mentions 2 smaller collections [of Lachnum virgineum] on Pteridium aquilinum. Lachnum virgineum is very common in the Pacific Northwest (Trudell(4)).
It is widely distributed in North America and is also found in Europe. It is reported specifically for WA by Kanouse and there are collections (as Dasyscyphus virgineus) from WA at the University of Washington. There are several collections at Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium for OR. There are collections from BC at the Pacific Forestry Centre and (as Dasyscyphus virgineus) at University of British Columbia.
Upper surface: 0.05-0.1cm across, goblet-shaped when young, remaining cup-shaped for a long time, finally plate-shaped; spore-bearing upper surface white to cream, smooth; margin white and thickly set with white hairs, (Breitenbach), cup-shaped, disc up to 0.1cm across, cream, (Dennis), 0.05-0.2cm across, (Hansen), up to 0.1cm across (Haines)
Underside: white and thickly set with white hairs, (Breitenbach), white and covered with white hairs, (Dennis), white, drying white or pale ochraceous, (Hansen)
Stem: 0.05-0.1cm long, distinct, (Breitenbach), long stem (Dennis), with stem (Hansen), 0.15-0.3cm long, densely covered with long white hairs, (Phillips), up to 0.1cm long (Haines)
Microscopic: spores 6-8 x 1.5-2 microns, fusiform to fusiform-clavate, smooth, colorless, without drops, uniseriate, not septate; asci 8-spored, 45 x 3.5-4 microns; paraphyses projecting beyond asci, 55 x 2.5-3 microns, lanceolate; hairs colorless, "thin-walled, encrusted, septate, tips blunt to slightly clavate", according to Dennis less than 120 microns long, (Breitenbach), spores 6-10 x 1.5-2.5 microns, fusiform or clavate, non-septate; asci 8-spored, up to 55 x 5 microns, cylindric-clavate; paraphyses considerably longer than asci, lanceolate, up to 5 microns wide, (Dennis), spores 6-11 x 1.5-2.5 microns, fusoid, aseptate; asci 45-55 x 4-5 microns; paraphyses exceeding asci by 10-25 microns, 4-5 microns wide, lanceolate; hairs 80-120 x 3-4.5 microns, "cylindric or with clavate to capitate apex, thin-walled", colorless, without apical crystals, (Hansen), spores 6-10 x 2 microns; asci 40-50 x 3.5-4 microns; paraphyses 3.5-4 microns wide, up to 15 microns longer than the asci; hairs up to 100 x 3.5-4 microns, (Haines)
Habitat / Range
gregarious to densely cespitose on dead branches and twigs, canes of Rubus (blackberry), beechnut shells, cones, etc.; throughout the year but especially in spring, (Breitenbach), on "many kinds of substrates such as wood, woody stems, cupules, cones and leaves", (Hansen), "scattered or in large groups on dead wood, twigs, and plant stems", April to June, September to October, (Phillips), primarily on hardwood debris (Trudell)
Similar Species
Lachnum pygmaeum has similar hairs but is much larger and almost bald at maturity, and has long-stalked asci, (Haines(1)). |Dasyscyphella nivea (R. Hedw.: Fr.) Raitv. is similar or the same species as L. virgineum: Seaver gives Lachnum niveum Karst. as a synonym of Lachnella virginea (Batsch) Phill. saying that none of the characters used to differentiate the two species appear to have any particular value (Phillips in British Discomycetes uses lanceolate paraphyses in L. virgineum, Rehm says they both have lanceolate paraphyses and uses other criteria, Gillet uses the form of the cup or length of hairs). However, the differentiation is maintained by such modern authors as Hansen, L.(1), Dennis(1), and Breitenbach(1) as follows. Lachnum virgineum has hairs that are granulose at apex, whereas Dasyscyphella nivea has the apical 1-3 cells(s) of hairs smooth, also paraphyses of Lachnum virgineum are lanceolate, whereas those of Dasyscyphella nivea are cylindric to narrowly lanceolate, (Hansen). Lachnum virgineum has lanceolate paraphyses considerably longer than the asci, whereas Dasyscyphella nivea has filiform paraphyses, scarcely longer than the asci, as well as a different type of hairs on exterior, (Dennis). Lachnum virgineum has lanceolate paraphyses, hairs with blunt to slightly clavate tips, and grows on dead branches and twigs, Rubus canes, beechnut shells, cones, etc. but Dasyscyphella nivea has filiform paraphyses, hairs with slightly clavate and smooth tips, sometimes with the remains of an exudate, and grows primarily on wood, mostly oak, (Breitenbach). Kanouse records both species from WA without making clear what criteria she used to separate them: her collection of Lachnum niveum on Rubus species has lanceolate paraphyses, (Kanouse), characters that fit the modern concept of Lachnum virgineum better than Dasyscyphella nivea: the presence of Dasyscyphella nivea in the Pacific Northwest remains uncertain. |Lachnum brevipilosum has been identified by O. Ceska and deposited at the University of British Columbia. Haines(1) also examined L. brevipilosum from western Washington. He says it is related to L. virgineum, but differs in its shorter hairs measuring 40-50(70) microns long, smaller spores measuring 5 x 3.5-4 microns (clavate), and yellower hymenium (drying to light yellow), and does not have the ragged appearance of L. virgineum. |Haines(1) examined 2 collections from Washington State of Dasyscyphus pudicellus (current name Lachnum tenuissimum (Quel.) Korf & W.Y. Zhuang) on grasses. He said the short-stemmed cups were up to 0.5cm across, entirely cream-white "densely covered with short, white glassy-appearing hairs", the spores 7-10 x 1.5-2.0 microns, fusiform to naviculate, the broadly lanceolate paraphyses 4-5 microns at widest point, exceeding asci by up to 25 microns, hairs 35-65 x 2.5-3.0 microns, conspicuously swollen at tip to 4.5-5.0 microns, finely granulate for their full length. |Haines(1) also reported a collection of Lachnum roridum (as Dasyscyphus roridus), on thimbleberry stems, "made distinctive by large crystal formations on the tips of its hairs, and by the large size of its paraphyses". He says the short-stemmed cups are up to 0.07cm across, cream-colored on disc and exterior, the exterior densely covered by white-appearing hairs, the spores 6-8(1) x 1.5-2.0 microns, narrowly fusiform, the broadly lanceolate paraphyses 4-6 microns wide at widest point, 70-100 microns long, exceeding asci by up to 50 microns, and colorless, the hairs 50-70 x 4.5-5.0 microns, usually capped by crystal masses up to 7 microns across, cylindric, "sometimes with very slightly enlarged tips", colorless, "thin-walled, finely but conspicuously roughened", 1 or 2 septate. |See also Psilachnum inquilinum on Equisetum under Roseodiscus subcarneus.
