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Species Information
Summary: Features include minute cup-shaped to disc-shaped fruitbodies, upper surface that is grayish white, margin and exterior thickly set with sulfur yellow hairs, growth on Urtica (nettle) and other herbs, and microscopic characters including long cylindric spores. Kanouse said that in Washington it was "found commonly and on a wide variety of substrata". Haines(1) says that this is the only Dasyscyphus species "commonly occurring on herbaceous substrates in western Washington which has long, multiseptate spores".
Belonidium sulphureum was reported from WA (Kanouse), NY to IA, Europe, (Seaver), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, (Hansen), and Switzerland (Breitenbach). There are collections from BC as Dasyscyphus sulphureus under Belonidium sulphureum at the Pacific Forestry Centre.
Upper surface: 0.05-0.2cm across, cup-shaped when young expanding to plate-shaped; spore-bearing upper surface gray-whitish, smooth; margin thickly set with sulfur-yellow hairs, (Breitenbach), 0.05-0.2cm across, spore-bearing upper surface grayish white, hairs sulfur yellow, (Hansen), reaching 0.1-0.15cm across, at first closed, expanding to flat with slightly raised margin; upper surface concave or flat, whitish or creamy white, (Seaver)
Underside: thickly set with sulfur-yellow hairs (Breitenbach), densely clothed with sulfur-yellow hairs, (Seaver)
Stem: none (Breitenbach), without a stem but "narrowed below approaching substipitate", (Seaver)
Microscopic: spores 26-29 x 1.9-2 microns in one collection and 30-35 x 2.5-3 microns in another, cylindric, "often slightly curved, with indistinct septa when mature", smooth, colorless, biseriate [illustrated as one bundle of 4 above another bundle of 4]; asci 8-spored, up to 100 x 10 microns, positive reaction in iodine; paraphyses projecting beyond the asci, narrowly lanceolate to filiform [thread-like]; hairs "yellowish, +/- thin-walled, septate, sparsely encrusted with isolated granules, ending in a +/- blunt tip", no hair coloration in the two specimens examined, (Breitenbach), spores 25-35 x 2-3 microns, narrowly fusoid, 0-3-septate; asci 80-100 x 6-8 microns; paraphyses exceeding asci by 5-20 microns, 4-5 microns wide, lanceolate; hairs 150-225 x 3-4.5 microns, yellowish, (Hansen), spores 8-10 x 1.5-2 microns or rarely 15-16 microns long, slender-elliptic, straight or slightly curved, or fusoid, 2-seriate; asci 8-spored, reaching a length of 50-75 microns and a width of 5 microns, clavate; paraphyses about as thick as the ascus, lanceolate; hairs cylindric, straight or slightly curved, pale yellowish or occasionally yellowish brown, septate, either blunt or gradually tapering with semiacute tip, minutely roughened, (Seaver), spores 20-35 x 2 microns, narrowly fusiform, 1-4-septate, flexuous, "often filled with large droplets as wide as the cell, biseriate to multiseriate in the ascus", (Haines)
Habitat / Range
gregarious to densely cespitose on "dead stems of Urtica (nettle), as well as other herbs, especially Umbelliferae (carrot family)", April to October, (Breitenbach), especially on Urtica but also found on Anthriscus (chervil), (Hansen), on herbaceous stems, on Sambucus sp., on Rubus stems, (Kanouse), scattered on dead herbaceous stems, (Seaver)
Similar Species
"Other fungi have been described which are identical except for smaller, non-septate spores but I have not seen any of this material." (Haines(1)), Discocistella grevillei was examined one from Urtica lyalli (stinging nettle) and once from Heracleum lanatum (cow parsnip) in Washington, by Haines(1) (as Dasyscyphus grevillei). He says that the sessile cups (up to 0.05cm across) are cream-white when fresh with short, light yellow hairs, the disc cream-colored. He says that spores are 6-9 x 1.5-2.0 microns; paraphyses narrowly lanceolate or almost filiform, 2-2.5 microns wide, exceeding the asci by up to 5 microns, and colorless; and hairs 3-5 microns wide, up to 40 microns long, irregularly cylindric, "sometimes slightly enlarged at the tips", colorless, thin-walled, continuous or with 1 or 2 septa, "finely roughened except at the base, without apical crystals", (Haines(1))
