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Species Information
Summary: {See also Dacrymyces Table.} Dacrymyces minor is characterized by 1) small gregarious gelatinous fruitbodies on wood, 2) the orange to yellow color with greenish tint when young, and 3) microscopic characters including 1-3-septate spores with thin walls and septa, and absent clamp connections.
It has been collected by James Ginns on Vancouver Island in BC (J. Ginns, pers. comm.). There are collections from BC by R. Bandoni deposited at the University of British Columbia. D. minor has also been recorded from NS, ON, PQ, AZ, CO, GA, IA, LA, NC, NY, and VT, (Ginns(5)), Brazil, England, and Germany, (Kennedy), Estonia, Russia, and Spain, (in Reid), France, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and New Zealand, (McNabb), and Panama (Brasfield(1)). Kennedy lists Washington, California, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Maine, (Kennedy(2), but these are not in Ginns(5) later listing).
Fruiting body: at first pustulate, becoming pulvinate [cushion-shaped], 0.05-0.2cm wide, often crowded into groups up to 1cm in extent, coalescing, smooth or centrally depressed and slightly convoluted, rarely cerebriform [brain-like], consistency firm gelatinous, attached to wood by a central point; "dingy orange or yellow when fresh, often with olivaceous tints when young, drying amber", (McNabb), 0.05-0.3cm, pulvinate to flattened discoid, smooth or sparingly convolute, rather firm gelatinous, sessile or attached by a central point; "dull, translucent, light amber, with greenish amber tint when young, becoming dull orange or yellow when older", (Brasfield(2)), 0.05-0.3cm across, pulvinate to flattened - disc-shaped, firm to soft-gelatinous; dull, translucent, greenish amber at first, then dull orange or yellow; smooth or sparingly convolute, sessile or attached by central point, (Martin), sometimes in crowded groups but scarcely truly coalescing; practically invisible when dry, (Kennedy), spore deposit white (Buczacki)
Microscopic: spores 8-14(15.5) x 3.5-5(6) microns, curved-cylindric, apiculate, tinted, becoming 1-3-septate at maturity, typically thin-walled with thin septa, occasionally walls and septa slightly thickened; germination by colorless spherical to ovate conidia, or by germ tubes from the 1-septate stage onwards; probasidia 25-45 x 3-4.5 microns, cylindric-subclavate, with basal septa, becoming bifurcate; hymenium consisting of basidia and occasionally simple cylindric dikaryophyses; internal hyphae "thin-walled, smooth or roughened, septate, clamp connections absent", (McNabb), spores (10)11-14(15) x 3-4(5) microns, cylindric, curved, at first simple, becoming 1-septate, later with 2 indistinct additional septa, basidia typical, conidia up to 2.5 microns, spherical or nearly spherical; internal hyphae smooth, rarely minutely roughened, without clamp connections, (Brasfield(2)), spores mostly 11-14 x 3-4 microns, suballantoid, 1-septate, later with 2 additional, usually indistinct septa; basidia clavate then furcate; conidia up to 2.5 x 2.5 microns, spherical or nearly so; internal hyphae smooth, rarely minutely roughened, without clamp connections, (Martin)
Habitat / Range
gregarious, on hardwood, less often conifer wood, (McNabb), on a variety of hardwoods, on Abies [fir], Picea [spruce], Pinus [pine], decorticated wood, associated with a brown rot, (Ginns(5)), all year (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Dacrymyces stillatus has spores that are thick-walled with thick septa, and possesses an arthrospore state, (McNabb). Fruitbodies of D. stillatus are also larger (Reid). Dacrymyces tortus grows on conifers and has conspicuous clamp connections, (Brasfield(2)). Dacrymyces capitatus in typical condition has 1) larger erumpent fruitbodies, 2) a rooting base or short stem, and 3) less allantoid spores with both thin walls and septa, (Reid). Dacrymyces minutus is even smaller and is sometimes irregular in shape, but spores are larger.
