Flagelloscypha minutissima (Burt) Donk
no common name
Niaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
no common name
Niaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Map
Distribution of Flagelloscypha minutissima
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Species Information
Summary:
Features include minute white cups with thin hairs on the outer surface, no stem, growth on wood and herbaceous debris, and microscopic characters including hairs that are incrusted with large rod-like to needle-like crystals of calcium oxalate.
Microscopic:
spores (6.2)8-12.2 x (3)4-5(5.75) microns, varying considerably in shape according to degree of maturity, fully mature spores as seen in a spore print measure (7.5)8.75-12.2 x 4-5 microns, and vary in side view from amygdaliform [almond-shaped] with a rather pronounced snout-like apex, to elliptic, but in face view appear more or less navicular [boat-shaped]; basidia 4-spored, 18 x 5.5 microns, clavate with a basal clamp connection; walls of fruitbody rarely exceed 40 microns in thickness and context only a few hyphae wide and 5-10 microns thick, the hyphae 2.5-4 microns wide, thin-walled, colorless, branched and clamped with each hypha slightly swollen at septa; from a clamped septum on the outermost hyphae arise hairs 2.5-3(3.5) microns wide, up to 210 microns long, which narrow gradually to a whip-like apex and also to a lesser extent toward the base of the hair, the walls slightly thickened but thinning toward apex and sometimes base of hair, the hairs covered except at ends by conspicuous detersile, rod-like or needle-like crystals that dissolve rapidly in 10% KOH, (Reid), spores colorless, inamyloid; hairs thin, colorless, thick-walled, inamyloid, incrusted with crystals of calcium oxalate (large acicular crystals as opposed to small granular ones on Lachnella species hairs), (Cooke), spores 7-10 x 3.5-4.5 microns, pip-shaped to boat-shaped, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2-spored; cystidia absent; hyphal system monomitic; marginal hairs "white, thick-walled, encrusted to halfway, tip smooth, tapering, very slender", (Buczacki)
Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)
Notes:
Flagelloscypha minutissima has been found in MB, SK, IA, IL, LA, ME, MI, NH, NJ, and VT, (Ginns), BC, MI, British Isles, France, Germany, and USSR, (Redhead(21)), and MI, Czech Republic, France, United Kingdom, and Azerbaijan, (Reid).
Habitat and Range
Habitat
gregarious, forming small scattered colonies, on very rotten fallen trunks, on woody and herbaceous debris, (Reid), on twigs of Picea sp., ? Pseudotsuga menziesii, ? dead Alnus sapling, Populus bark, fallen Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern), dead Vicia ?gigantea, (Redhead(21)), also Poria sp. (Ginns), in densely +/- tufted groups; on dead wood and other woody debris of hardwoods, occasionally on other plant debris, summer to fall, (Buczacki)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Lachnellula chrysophthalma (Pers.) P. Karst.