Gelatinopsis geoglossi

[ Ascomycota > Helotiales > Helicogoniaceae > Gelatinopsis ... ]

by Michael Kuo

Here's a cup fungus that's so tiny you can't see it . . . which might reasonably make you wonder why on earth I have featured it at my website. The truth is, I didn't collect it on purpose; unbeknownst to me, it was hitching a ride on the fruiting bodies of Trichoglossum farlowii specimens Melissa and I collected in North Carolina. I suppose "hitching a ride" is a bit of a misrepresentation, though, since the little fungus is a parasite; it embeds itself in the hymenium of the Trichoglossum, essentially killing it. Hitchhikers don't generally do that, except in those "true" crime magazines my grandma used to read.

Hypomyces geoglossi and Micropyxis geoglossiare former names.

Description:

Ecology: Parasitic on "earth tongue" mushrooms in the genera Geoglossum and Trichoglossum—especially Trichoglossum farlowii; growing densely gregariously; summer and fall; originally described from New Jersey; distribution uncertain (documented from eastern North America, the Caribbean, and France). The illustrated and described collection is from North Carolina.

Fruiting Bodies: Microscopic; covering the surfaces of the host fungi; visible at lower magnifications as cushion-shaped masses, orangish brown in KOH.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6–10 x 3–4 µm; subellipsoid or irregularly amygdaliform; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Asci 30–40 µm long; cylindric; hyaline in KOH. Paraphyses 2 µm wide; filiform with rounded apices.

REFERENCES: (J. B. Ellis & B. M. Everhart, 1886) G. Rambold & D. Triebel, 1990. (Ellis & Everhart, 1892; Pfister, 1976; Rambold & Triebel, 1990; Quijada & Pfister, 2021.) Herb. Kuo 08101912.

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Fruiting body embedded between asci and setae of Trichoglossum farlowii

Spores

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2022, June). Gelatinopsis geoglossi. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/gelatinopsis_geoglossi.html