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Dacrymyces minor

[ Basidiomycota > Dacrymycetales > Dacrymycetaceae > Dacrymyces ... ]

by Michael Kuo

By traditional definitions Dacrymyces minor is essentially a smaller version of Dacrymyces stillatus. If you're thinking, "Oh, great: a small version of a small yellow blob," you might ask yourself why you are messing around with tiny jelly fungi on sticks in the first place. But if you are bound and determined to have at it, Dacrymyces minor maxes out at about 1–2 mm across when mature, while Dacrymyces stillatus is about 2–10 mm in diameter. Some authors claim that Dacymyces minor has a greenish cast, at least when young, but other authors de-emphasize this putative difference. Microscopic features do not clearly separate the two species, since they both have spores with 1–3 septa and lack clamp connections.

Oh, by the way, according to DNA analysis by Shirouzu and collaborators (2009) "Dacrymyces stillatus and D. minor were paraphyletic," meaning that neither represents a coherent phylogenetic species.

Dacrymyces deliquescens var. minor is a synonym.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing scattered to gregariously on the wood of hardwoods; found year-round; originally described from New York; widely distributed in North America; also found in Central America, South America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. The illustrated and described collection is from Illinois.

Fruiting Body: 0.5–2.5 mm across; more or less cushion shaped; surface yellow to orangish yellow, bald; with a broadly to narrowly pinched base; flesh gelatinous.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Spores 10–15 x 5–7 µm; allantoid; apiculate; smooth; hyaline in KOH, with many oil droplets; tardily becoming septate with 1–3 septa. Probasidia subclavate to clavate; developing 2 short, stubby apical protrusions that eventually extend to become sterigmata on mature basidia. Basidia Y-shaped. Contextual hyphae 1.5–3 µm wide; smooth; hyaline in KOH; clamp connections not found.


REFERENCES: Peck, 1878. (Brasfield, 1938; Olive, 1947; Olive, 1948; Martin, 1952; Kennedy, 1958; McNabb, 1973; Reid, 1974; Shirouzu et al., 2009; Buczacki et al., 2012; Shirouzu et al., 2013; Zamora & Ekman, 2020.) Herb. Kuo 01211701.


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Dacrymyces minor

Dacrymyces minor
Spores



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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2021, April). Dacrymyces minor. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/dacrymyces_minor.html