Hi,

I have got this collection hoping you can give me advise..

Habitat: Apex of several Larix sp. cones, after one week in a moist chamber. Monte Xalo, A Coruña, Galicia. 01-06-2025.

Description:

Cupulate ascocarps up to 1.1 mm in diameter and up to 1.25 mm tall, including the stipe. Pure white in color, covered with abundant water droplets (guttules) on both the stipe and the apothecial margin. Guttules are also visible in the center of the disc. Under 40× magnification, hairs can be observed both along the margin of the apothecium and along the stipe.

Microscopically, it is characterized by narrow, ellipsoid spores measuring (6.8) 7.4–8.2 × (1.7) 2.0–2.3 µm; Q = (3.4) 3.7–4.2; N = 32; C = 68%; Me = 7.5 × 2.0 µm; Qe = 3.8. The spores generally have acute ends, and in some cases are slightly curved, boomerang-shaped. Asci are up to 50 × 6–8 µm, amyloid (IKI+), 8-spored, with croziers at the base. Paraphyses are lanceolate, up to 80 µm long and 10 µm wide, with a basal and an apical septum, and no visible refractive vacuolar bodies (VBs). The apothecium is covered by an outer layer of cylindrical hyphae arranged in a palisade parenchyma; the terminal cells of these hyphae differentiate into filiform hairs: capitate, hyaline, with 2–3 septa, slightly thick-walled, up to 70 × 6–8 µm. These hairs are shorter on the stipe, where they reach up to 50 µm in length.

Preliminary identification was attempted using Baral's Key to European species of Lachnum (XXX), but this collection doesn't quite match any of the described species, the closest may be Lachnum subvirgineum. I have seen the collection described by my friend M.A. Ribes (2009) in Contribución al conocimiento de la micobiota de las Islas Canarias (España) I (Bol. Soc. Micol. Madrid 33: 201–223) on this species although in his collection the spores were broader. I also reviewed Suková's (2005) work (A revision of selected material of lignicolous Lachnum species from the Czech Republic with a note on graminicolous material of the Lachnum pygmaeum complex, Czech Mycol. 57(3–4): 183–213), but couldn't find any species that matches this one either. At one point in her paper I considered Lachnum pygmaeum, described from Picea, but that species typically darkens when dry, which is not the case here. Moreover, the spore dimensions and apothecial features don't fully align.

At this point, I suspect this could belong to the Lachnum subvirgineum complex.