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Species Information
Summary: Also listed in Jelly category. Features include 1) the shape that is top-shaped becoming cup-shaped to disc-shaped, 2) dark purple to black spore-bearing upper surface, 3) gelatinous texture at least when young, 4) exterior that is gray and matted-hairy, and 5) microscopic characters including large spores without droplets. Although this species was described as Sarcosoma latahensis (using a feminine form for the adjective), "soma" is a neuter Greek noun and should use the neuter form of the adjective, "latahense";
Pseudosarcosoma latahense is found at least in WA, OR, and ID, (Larsen), and BC (Carbone). A collection from BC determined by B. Callan was deposited at the Pacific Forestry Centre.
Upper surface: up to 7.5cm but often smaller, at first top-shaped and highly gelatinous, becoming disc-shaped, often losing much of the gelatinous texture but some fruitbodies remaining gelatinous; spore-bearing upper surface at first deep purple, becoming black, (Paden), "several mm thick when young but relatively plane, becoming discoid with age and thinner", (Castellano), up to about 4cm across (Trudell)
Flesh: gelatinous at first becoming tough (Lincoff), gelatin diminishing greatly as fruitbodies age (Trudell)
Underside: grayish to black, clothed with extensive tomentum [matted hairs], (Paden)
Stem: substipitate (with somewhat of a stem), (Paden)
Microscopic: spores 24-38 x 9-12 microns, elliptic, with blunt to rounded ends, smooth, colorless, containing a few small oil drops when young but none at maturity; asci 8-spored, 380-470 x 10-14 microns, cylindric, narrowing basally, the bases sometimes forked, asci suboperculate; paraphyses 3.2-5.2 microns broad at tip, 2.8-3.5 microns broad in lower part, filiform [thread-like] to slightly clavate, "branched, anastomosing, closely septate", "often bent or irregularly lobed, containing a homogeneous, olive-brown pigment, embedded in an amorphous brownish material"; hypothecium of textura intricata, the hyphae 2.8-5.2 microns wide, medullary excipulum of textura intricata, the hyphae 5-10 microns wide, colorless, ectal excipulum of textura angularis, the inner cells colorless, the outer cells with dark brown walls, usually isodiametric and up to 20 microns wide, at times up to 50 x 35 microns and oriented with long axes perpendicular to the exterior; hyphae of tomentum up to 400 microns long, 4-8.5 microns wide, slightly tapered, colorless to olive brown, (if pigmented paler in distal end), branched, septate, smooth except for occasional dark granules near basal end, at times with globoid swellings, (Paden), paraphyses with irregular apices, sometimes curved, slender, much branched, (Castellano), spores 24-37 x 9-12 microns (Trudell)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious, saprophytic on decaying wood, litter, and bare soil, April, May, and June, often near or beneath melting snow, (Paden)
Similar Species
Urnula padeniana has a usually larger fruitbody, spores containing oil droplets, and dark, encrusted tomentum hyphae, (Paden). U. padeniana has a well-developed and persistent gelatinous interior, has spores 23-34 x 10-14 microns, has heavily pigmented hairs on the exterior, and occurs from November to April, whereas S. latahense lacks a highly gelatinized interior, has spores 24-38 x 9-12 microns, has hairs on the exterior that are almost colorless to olive, and fruits from April to May, (Castellano). U. padeniana is larger, up to about 10cm, is more gelatinous, has cups with a black rather than gray exterior, and has spores 23-24 x 10-14 microns, (Trudell). See also SIMILAR section of Bulgaria inquinans.
