Dear John

I remember you well from Sheffield. What did you collect here, have you been overseas??

The beforelast photo looks as if you have added KOH? And the third I cannot interpret. What I miss is a photo of the asci and paraphyses. The hymenium looks very scurfy, there must be some origin of that. Are the asci amyloid?

Zotto

Hello Zotto and very good to hear from you.

They were collected from Whitwell Wood in Derbyshire, England. No KOH just Congo Red in 10% ammonia and yes the hymenium was very scurfy. I've not yet seen any asci or paraphyses so must look harder at the collection. I have quite a few samples so hopefully I should find someting to help further.

I'll update soon :)

Best Wishes - John

Hi John
I have seen a very similar fungus on frass/soil in the hollow trunk of a large dead oak in Belfast.
I assumed it was the anamorph of Hypocrea rufa i.e. Trichoderma viride, but I have little experience of moulds.   Unlike you, I could find no evidence that it was an ascomycete i.e. no ascospores, no asci, no paraphyses. 
The context was dark green and very solid, gelatinous when cut with a scalpel.  The soil underneath the green cups was full of a fugaceous green mould which I took to be a Trichoderma.
Best wishes
Roy

The greenish structures to me look like immature Hypocrea stromata which would make the "spores" alien - but lots of things are going on on this piece of wood so it would not be difficult to have a mixed preparation.

cheers

Maybe a median section viewed under the bino would make things clearer. Are there perithecia?

Zotto

Hi Thomas,

in the meantime I had also the idea that the spores are not related to the "blue thing"..
In the first overview photo we see on the left side som black beaks that could belong to something Gnomoniaceous. The spores shown are in the range of this group.

Regards

Martin

Hello all and many thanks for your input, it is much appreciated. It does look like there's a few 'other' things going off here! Today I returned to the site to gather further samples in the hope I can clear a few issues.

I'm away on holiday for the next couple of weeks but hopefully I can update before I go.

Very Best Wishes - John

Hi,

John did send me some material of his collection.
Zotto was right to think it is of the same origin as Bernard's find that turned out to be Sarawakus britannicus: http://www.ascofrance.fr/search_forum/25115
The spores shown by John belong certainly to another fungus, maybe one of those pyrenos present in the material he sent but still not examined by me.
What I found in the material in question were ascomata with distinct loculi but nearly without contents due to an immature state. Nevertheless I found some very hyalinous asci in a premature state.
I tend very much to bring this collection very close to the one of Bernard.
Maybe John will collect some more mature ascomata after his return.

Best regards,

Martin

Many thanks to everyone, especially Martin for looking at my material. Very much appreciated!

I will update if they develop more.

Best Wishes - John