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Species Information
Summary: Features include a minute, pale yellow to white, smooth cup, a slender stem, growth on herbaceous stems, and microscopic characters that may include a bristle on each end of the spore.
Hymenoscyphus scutula is found from NY to OR, and MO, and probably throughout North America (as well as in Europe), (Seaver). It has also been found in WA (Kanouse, var. grossulariae, forma rubi, and var. caudatum which may correspond to a similar species Hymenoscyphus caudatum). There is a collection from BC determined by R. Bandoni at the University of British Columbia (as Helotium), and 2 other collections from BC at the Pacific Forestry Centre.
Upper surface: up to 0.1-0.2cm across, shallow cup-shaped, becoming nearly flat; spore-bearing upper surface slightly concave, pale yellow, similar in color to exterior of cup, (Seaver), 0.1-0.4cm, saucer-shaped to funnel-shaped, also plate-shaped; spore-bearing surface yellow-ocher to cream, smooth; margin with a sharp edge and often rather whitish, (Breitenbach), up to 0.4cm, "disc flat with thin low margin, cream to yellowish, drying ochraceous", (Dennis), fruitbody white when fresh, (Kanouse for var. caudatum), fruitbody avellaneous when fresh (Kanouse for var. grossulariae)
Underside: pale yellow (Seaver), somewhat lighter in color than spore-bearing surface; sometimes with faint longitudinal fibers, (Breitenbach), whitish, appearing fibrous under hand-lens and often longitudinally streaked with darker bands, (Dennis), white, but turns pale yellow when dried except for the rolled edge of cup which becomes dark tan, (Kanouse for var. caudatum), avellaneous, (Kanouse for var. grossulariae)
Stem: with stem variable in length, often reaching 0.5cm, usually about 0.03cm wide, or occasionally almost sessile [without stem]; often springing from a dark-colored subiculum, (Seaver), 0.1-0.7cm long, slender, cylindric; cream, (Breitenbach), slender, cylindric, (Dennis), rather stout and firm and thickened in the middle, (Kanouse for var. caudatum)
Microscopic: spores 20-28 x 3-4 microns, "fusoid, or clavate, slightly curved, often spuriously 1-3-septate", irregularly biseriate, occasionally with a cilium at one or both ends; asci 8-spored, reaching a length of 90-100 microns and a width of 8-10 microns, clavate; paraphyses filiform, reaching a diameter of 7 microns, (Seaver), 19-20 x 3.2-4 microns, fusiform, smooth, colorless, with 2 or several droplets, normally with colorless bristle on each end, sometimes one-septate, spores biseriate in asci; asci 8-spored, 90-95 x 8 microns, amyloid; paraphyses "slender, gradually thickened slightly toward the tips to 3 microns wide, septate", (Breitenbach), spores 18-27 x 3.5-5 microns, somewhat cylindric, pointed in lower part and asymmetrically rounded or slightly beaked in upper part, with a fine colorless bristle at lower end and usually a shorter one at upper end, containing 2 oil droplets, biseriate, sometimes becoming septate; asci 8-spored, 110 x 11 microns, cylindric-clavate, somewhat conic at tip with pore made blue by iodine; paraphyses slender, widened upwards to about 3 microns, (Dennis), spores 18-20 x 4-6 microns, one-celled in contrast to type variety which is two-celled, ascus turns weakly blue in iodine, (Kanouse for var. caudatum), spores 14-18 x 3.5-4 microns, smaller than in typical material, (Kanouse for var. grossulariae), spores (12)14-18 x 3-4 microns, slightly curved and almost pointed at one end, one-celled, (Kanouse for forma rubi)
Habitat / Range
thickly gregarious, on herbaceous stems of various kinds, (Seaver), occasionally single but usually gregarious and covering entire stems; on rotting stems of various herbs, especially Compositae, in damp places under the plants, (Breitenbach), scattered on dead herbaceous stems, (Dennis), on leaves of Salix (willow), (Kanouse for var. caudatum), on herbaceous stems (Kanouse for var. grossulariae), on Rubus stems (Kanouse for forma rubi)
