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Species Information
Summary:
Not available
Fruiting body: 3-8cm high, black; fertile upper part up to 1.5cm long and 0.5-0.75cm thick, ellipsoid or lanceolate, obtuse, usually not more than one-fifth the total length of the entire fruiting body, more or less compressed [flattened], rather sharply delimited from stem, hollow, (Seaver), 1-8cm high, club-shaped to occasionally capitate, black or brownish black; spore-bearing part 0.2-0.5cm wide, up to 2cm high, compressed, hirsute from setae, (Mains), entire fruiting body black to black-brown with velvety hairs, head 1/8-1/2 the height of the fruiting body, more or less compressed and spathulate to clavate, (Breitenbach)
Flesh: thin, tough; usually brownish, (Arora)
Stem: up to 6cm long and 0.2-0.3cm thick, equal, round in cross-section, densely velvety, (Seaver), 0.2-0.3cm wide, slender, hirsute from setae, (Mains)
Microscopic: spores 100-160 x 6-7 microns, 15-septate at maturity, in a parallel fascicle in the ascus, brown, cylindric-clavate, broadest above the middle, tapering each way to the obtuse ends; asci 8-spored, up to 210-225 microns long and 20-22 microns wide, broadly club-shaped, apex narrowed, the pore blue with iodine; paraphyses up to 3 microns in lower part, up to 8 microns thick in upper part, "brown, cylindric, septate, usually strongly curved, or coiled at the slightly thickened tips"; hymenial spines numerous, 8-10 microns thick, variable in length, usually projecting about one-third their length beyond the hymenium, straight, acute, black, opaque, (Seaver), var. hirsutum: spores 80-170 x 5-7 microns, fusoid-clavate, narrowing toward each end from above middle, asci 8-spored, 180-275 x 18-25 microns, clavate, the variety usually being described as having regularly 15-septate spores; paraphyses cylindric, moderately septate, somewhat enlarged and straight or curved to circinate [twisted or coiled] in upper part, setae abundant, acuminate, dark brown, projecting 1/4 to 1/3 their lengths above the hymenium, var. longisporum (Tai) Mains with long spores 156-190 x 6-7 microns and asci 237-281 x 19-25 microns for type from China, but in collections from California spores (120)133-180(195) x 6-7 microns, fusoid-clavate, mostly 15-septate, asci 225-275, clavate, var. irregulare Mains with only some spores 15-septate (22-82% in various collections of this variety) and measuring (90)100-150(165) x 5-7 microns, var. heterosporum Mains from at least TN with spores 8-21-septate (64% of spores less than 15-septate and 21% more in various collections), and measuring (95)120-150(160) x 5-6 microns with asci 175-200 x 17-20 microns, var. multiseptatum Mains from TN with spores 12-22 septate (21% less than 15-septate 57% greater than 15-septate in 2 collections) and (145)160-195(210) x 6 microns, long and fusoid-clavate, with 8-spored asci 210-225 x 20-25 microns, clavate, (Mains), hairs dark brown, pointed, straight, up to 180 x 8-9 microns, (Breitenbach), spores 80-210 x 5-7 microns, with about 15 cross-walls, (Trudell)
Habitat / Range
single or gregarious on rotten wood or on humus among leaves, (Seaver), scattered to gregarious on rotting wood, on soil, in sphagnum, (Mains), single to gregarious in boggy meadows among Sphagnum, (Breitenbach), single, scattered, gregarious or in tufts "in humus, moss, or soil (or occasionally on rotten wood), usually in woods", (Arora), fall (Bacon)
Similar Species
Trichoglossum velutipes has 4-spored asci and spores very variable in septation with few or none 15-septate. Geoglossum species are not hirsute from setae under a hand lens, and do not normally have such a well-defined head. See also SIMILAR section of Geoglossum fallax, Geoglossum glabrum, Geoglossum umbratile, Glutinoglossum glutinosum, and Microglossum atropurpureum.
