Hi Danny

to me the fungus looks operculate, but I am not sure. This could be clarified by a closeup of the ascus apex, especially if you find opered, emptied asci. Also a section of the ectal excipulum would be valuable (cell size?).

Did you see any free spores? What is their size?

Zotto

Zotto,

Thank you for your prompt and informative reply.  We have taken the undried portion of the collection and placed it in a moisture chamber.  Hopefully with time the spores will begin to be discharged and the operculum will be more noticeable.  There were no spores observed floating in the medium, nor any open asci, leading us to believe that this is either inoperculate or still immature.

Will also post back with ectal excipular cell measurements shortly.

Many thanks,

-Danny

We measured a range of ectal excipular cells, finding both small ones and large ones.  Their measurements are as follows:

26 x 33
27.5 x 45
30 x 43.75
33.75 x 50
12.5 x 19
11.5 x 15
12.5 x 17.5

Attached are images of these cells at both 400x and 1000x, as well as some septate, lanceolate hairs seen on the surface of the ectal excipulum at 400x, and finally a somewhat blurry image of the yellow-filled hyphae at 1000x.

yes, these large cells and the brownish setae point to the genus Cheilymenia. I am not an expert in that group.

Zotto

Thank you, Zotto.  Indeed, a look at the rest of the requisite microcharacters for Cheilymenia make it a good match for this material.  Cheilymenia theleboloides did not appear to be a perfect fit going by Fungi of Switzerland's description, since it describes the hairs as hyaline.  Ascomycetes in Colour, however, describes them as hyaline to yellowish-brown.  All other microcharacters described from both texts are consistent with our observations.  The only remaining feature to check is the longitudinal striations in the mature spores, which we should be able to observe one the material has sat in its moisture chamber for a few days.

Thank you again for your kind assistance.

-Danny, Alan and Sava.

Cher Collègue,

L'appartenance de votre récolte au genre Cheilymenia ne fait aucun doute. Malheureusement les informations que vous donnez et les photos que vous présentez ne sont pas très utiles ou suffisamment explicites pour permettre de déterminer l'espèce.

Le premier caractère à déterminer dans ce genre et le type d'ornementation sporal, ceci dans le bleu coton lactique et au plus fort grossissement, puis leur dimension. Ensuite il faut surtout observer la présence éventuelle de poils en forme d'étoile, la forme basale des poils, notamment des poils sétiformes, puis les mesurer, leur couleur est importante, mais elle peut varier. Enfin il faut définir les textures des strates composant la chair. Après seulement il sera certainement possible de déterminer l'espèce.

Le genre Cheilymenia étant très interessant et les espèces nombreuses, mais assez difficiles à déterminer, je vous conseille la monographie de Jiri Moravec (2005) « A Wold Monograph of the genus Cheilymenia » Libri Botanici vol. 21 , 256 p. IHW-Verlag, ISBN 3-930167-62-x.

René