Summary:
Features include 1) a nearly spherical to kidney-shaped, dark reddish brown fruitbody that becomes blackish brown where bruised, the surface tomentulose, with plentiful fibrils at a definite point of attachment, 2) a spore mass that is slaty black, slightly lined or streaked with septa and the cavities filled with gel, and 3) microscopic characters including dark, smooth, suboval spores in a gel. It is infrequent in the Pacific Northwest (Trappe(13)).
Melanogaster intermedius has been found in western OR and northern CA (Trappe(13)). It has also been found in England (Zeller). There is a BC collection at the University of British Columbia.
Outer Surface:
2-4.5cm across, nearly spherical to kidney-shaped; very dark reddish brown when fresh, "becoming blackish where bruised"; "surface even to undulating, tomentulose", fibrils plentiful in lower part, "at a definite place of attachment", (Zeller), 1-4.5cm across, more or less spherical to kidney-shaped; red-brown, bruising dark brown to black; smooth or finely downy, (Buczacki)
Stem:
stem absent, sparse rhizomorphs at base, (Buczacki)
Interior:
slaty black, "slightly lined or streaked with thin septa", cavities filled with spores in a gel, (Zeller), white to pale yellow, then gray-black, with numerous +/- rounded cavities, (Buczacki)
Taste:
indistinct (Buczacki)
Microscopic:
spores 11-13 x 7.4-8 microns, dark, mostly suboval, "obtuse, smooth, very rarely somewhat fusiform, tip subacute"; cavities filled with spores in a gel; "thin septa, of hyaline (dilute yellowish) gelified hyphae"; peridium 125-160 microns thick, "light yellow to brownish near the exterior", stupose [with tufted or matted filaments], "of hyphae with vesiculose cells, homogeneous, but loosely woven at the surface with some erect hyphae giving the tomentulose character, distinct from the tramal tissue", (Zeller), spores 10-14.5 x 6.5-9 microns, broadly elliptic to short terminal appendage, smooth, brown-black, (Buczacki)
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