Trichophaea contradicta (Seaver) H.J. Larsen
no common name
Pyronemataceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
no common name
Pyronemataceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) a tiny, lens-shaped, light to dark brown fruitbody, 2) short light-colored marginal hairs (each with a nearly spherical basal cell), 3) long, brown, flexuous [wavy] hairs scattered over the undersurface, 4) growth on burned soil or charcoal in late spring or early summer, and 5) smooth, broadly elliptic spores. The anamorphic state is assigned to Dichobotrys.
Microscopic:
spores (12)14.5-16(18) x (8.5)9.0-10.5(11) microns, broadly elliptic to occasionally nearly round, smooth, containing 1 or usually 2 oil droplets and a large deBary bubble when mounted in lactic acid, lactophenol, or Melzer''s reagent, uniseriate in the ascus; asci 8-spored, 150-170 x 11-14 microns, cylindric, operculate, not turning blue in iodine; paraphyses 150-170 x 1.5-2.5 microns, septate, unbranched, tips enlarged to 5-8 microns wide, "usually clavate to spatulate, with the apical cell brownish and containing numerous small oil droplets"; medullary excipulum 60-100 microns thick, of textura intricata with cells 5-8 microns in diameter; ectal excipulum 180-230 microns thick at base, narrowing to 60 microns thick toward the margin, composed of textura globulosa toward the base with cells (10)25-60 microns in diameter "and the outermost cells brownish walled", grading into textura angularis for the upper half of the ectal excipulum, with the 15-40 x (5)10-15(20) microns cells "oriented with their long axis perpendicular to the outer surface"; excipular hairs of the upper margin "typically single but occasionally grouped in small fascicles, very short", 20-45(65) x 4-6 microns, colorless to very light brown, thin-walled, (1)2-4-celled, narrowing quickly above the 8-10 microns diameter swollen basal cell and ending in a narrowly obtuse to acuminate tip; "excipular hairs of the lower margin and flank longer", 80-115(140) x 5-7 microns, 3-5-celled, umber brown, "more flexuous, also arising from a swollen outer excipular basal cell but more gradually tapering to a narrowly obtuse tip"
Notes:
Trichophaea contradicta is known from two collections found in BC and NY.
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Trichophaea contradicta is similar to the dark variant of Trichophaea abundans but differs in the greater width of its spores and in the blunt tips of the hairs on the lower exterior, (Larsen).Habitat
gregarious to crowded, on burned soil or charcoal in late spring or early summer, (on burned soil and litter at the edge of a forest fire site, beside highway in Glacier National Park, BC, June 26, 1971, and on burnt ground, New York Botanical Garden, NY, June 27, 1916)
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Clavaria caulifloriformis Leathers
Ramaria cartilaginea Marr & D.E. Stuntz