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Species Information
Summary: Sclerotinia veratri produces small, yellow-brown to red-brown to vinaceous-brown stemmed cups on Veratrum spp. growing from a blackish crust or a rice-grain-shaped sclerotium.
It is reported at least from BC on Veratrum viride (Kroeger(5)), from CA (MykoWeb), and from CO (type on Veratrum californicum, in Davidson, R.W.(3)).
Upper surface: usually 0.3-0.7cm across, sometimes larger up to 1cm, reddish brown, cup-shaped at first, with inrolled margins, becoming almost flat; spore-bearing surface brown becoming lighter grayish brown when mature; wrinkled when dry, (Davidson, R.W.), 0.15-1cm across, shallowly cup-shaped; ochre-brown to dull vinaceous-brown; moist, bald, margin lacking hairs (MykoWeb)
Underside: similar to interior (MykoWeb)
Stem: 0.5-1cm x 0.05-0.1cm, "black, swollen toward the base"; sclerotia are "flat, elliptical to irregularly elongate, embedded in stems and, when infection is severe, diffused over considerable area, dark reddish brown to black, white within, 3-7 mm. long by 1-3 mm. broad and 1 mm. thick", (Davidson, R.W.), up to 2.5cm long, 0.05-0.1cm wide, equal or widened at top; tan, ocher-brown to dark reddish brown; bald to inconspicuously patchy-tomentose; "arising from a blackish crust or rice-grain-shaped sclerotium", (MykoWeb)
Odor: not distinctive (MykoWeb)
Taste: not distinctive (MykoWeb)
Microscopic: spores 15-17.6 x 5-6.5 microns, oblong-elliptic, colorless, unicellular, with 2 droplets, irregularly 1-seriate; asci 140-150 x 11-13 microns, cylindric, "attenuated near base, wall thickened at apex"; paraphyses 2-2.5 microns wide at apex, "filiform, septate, simple or branched near the base, pale brown", (Davidson, R.W.), spores 14.5-19.0 x 5.5-6.5 microns, elliptic, "smooth, thin-walled with two to several oil droplets"; asci 8-spored, uniseriate, (MykoWeb)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious on stems of rotting Veratrum spp. (corn-lily), fruiting in the spring shortly after snow melt, (MykoWeb(1)), type on Veratrum californicum in Colorado: the sclerotia were often observed on old stems but cups seldom found, (Davidson, R.W.)
Similar Species
A number of other Sclerotinia species occur in the Pacific Northwest: the herbarium at the University of British Columbia has collections from BC named as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (6), and Sclerotinia trifoliorum (2) (as well as several now considered to be in other genera).
