Fungi on fungi

[CapAndBracket]

Could be mistaken for the surface of fruit cake, but is in fact an old Piptoporus betulinus the Birch Polypore. The fungi growing on the old pore surface (underside of polypore) i would have expected to be some mould but is an ascomycete Hypocrea pulvinata.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X1000

Not a great image, but the above shows the asci and spores of Hypocrea pulvinata, note this is one of the oddities where asci normally contain 8 spores but this species has a duplication and contains 16 spores per asci.

Cheers J.P.

[CloudedYellow]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

note this is one of the oddities where asci normally contain 8 spores but this species has a duplication and contains 16 spores per asci.

Cheers J.P.

That's interesting! Can I add it to the A-Z please?

Richard

[CapAndBracket]

By all means feel free, i shall be pleased if some of my amateur ramblings prove interesting/useful to others.

Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

Hi J.P.

I would guess by your enthusiasm, that by now you know your micro-fungi better than I do, (can't teach an old dog new tricks is so true - sigh !) so now that you have come across H. pulvinata eating the hymenal layer of Birch Polypore, (or Chicken of the Woods) see if you can find one with reddish smears on the H. pulvinata.

Some years back on a BMS discomycete workshop, someone pointed this out to me and said it is another fungi attacking the Hypocrea and put a name to it for me but I forgotten it. I've come across it several times since, but can't think of the name.

Neil.

[CapAndBracket]

oh, some very kind words there, i'm afraid i have a lot to learn but will keep trying, now to find your fungi this sounds interesting.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Originally Posted by fairplay

Hi J.P.

I would guess by your enthusiasm, that by now you know your micro-fungi better than I do, (can't teach an old dog new tricks is so true - sigh !) so now that you have come across H. pulvinata eating the hymenal layer of Birch Polypore, (or Chicken of the Woods) see if you can find one with reddish smears on the H. pulvinata.

Some years back on a BMS discomycete workshop, someone pointed this out to me and said it is another fungi attacking the Hypocrea and put a name to it for me but I forgotten it. I've come across it several times since, but can't think of the name.

Neil.

I put your qestion to the group i was with today, and they straightaway said
Hypomyces aurantius which i then found on an old Trametes versicolor, is this what you meant i have i to look again.

I'm happy either way as it was a good and interesting find, and they put me right (if it checks out correct under microscope) as i thought it was a nectria.sp. Looking at the phylogenetic relationship on the net i found a paper describing it's development as a modified nectria form.

Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

What was pointed out to me on a workshop was probably something completely different to what I keep finding, it was so long ago now, and I really did go in at the deep end - it was heavy stuff !!

If you have Fungi of Switzerland 2, go to the photos of 161: [Phanerochaete sanguinea and 377: Physisporinus sanguinolentus. It is this sort of red staining or bruising even, that I occasionally find on Hypocrea pulvinata growing on Birch Polypore.

It is not 'materialistic' like a Nectria sp., just red staining, and probably in hindsight not the fungi 'that was pointed out to me as growing on H. pulvinata'

Once I tried scraping away the 'infected' Hypocrea only to find that the body of the Birch Polypore was stained red too (where the stain was) and on slicing the B Polypore verticaly it was possible to make out the stain had even gone down the 'stem' or point of attachment, partialy, so that points to an infection rather than bruising.

Confused ? I bet Mykonik is too unless I've managed to ring one of his many bells.

Neil.

[mykonik]

Originally Posted by fairplay

What was pointed out to me on a workshop was probably something completely different to what I keep finding, it was so long ago now, and I really did go in at the deep end - it was heavy stuff !!

If you have Fungi of Switzerland 2, go to the photos of 161: [Phanerochaete sanguinea and 377: Physisporinus sanguinolentus. It is this sort of red staining or bruising even, that I occasionally find on Hypocrea pulvinata growing on Birch Polypore.

It is not 'materialistic' like a Nectria sp., just red staining, and probably in hindsight not the fungi 'that was pointed out to me as growing on H. pulvinata'

Once I tried scraping away the 'infected' Hypocrea only to find that the body of the Birch Polypore was stained red too (where the stain was) and on slicing the B Polypore verticaly it was possible to make out the stain had even gone down the 'stem' or point of attachment, partialy, so that points to an infection rather than bruising.

Confused ? I bet Mykonik is too unless I've managed to ring one of his many bells.

Neil.

I'm often confused - it must be my age !!

The red (or purplish in some cases) staining of old polypore basdiomes etc, that you are talking about in these cases is probably due to the fact that old basidiomes are saprophytically attacked by ascomycetes of the genus Hypomyces. There are several species but the following two are very common.....

In the case of H. aurantiacus, the mycelium is reddish or orange-reddish and colours the dead and dying tissue of the substrate a similar tint, as does that of H. rosellus but in that species a rich rose-purplish colour will be noted.

In both cases the fertile stages (ascocarps) are also the same respective colours viz orange in H. aurantiacus and rose-purple in H. rosellus and will aslo colour the substrate.

With regard to Physisporinus sanguinolentus the almost immediate reddish colour changes seen when it is bruised are probably due to an oxydation reaction of the cell contents, leaked out by cells that are damaged when handled or touched. This is similar to those changes seen in various Boletus species but the end product is a different colour (reddish in P. sanguinolentus, bluish or greenish in the boletes)

In the case of Phanerochaete sanguinea the reddish staining of the substrate (wood) is again 'probably' due to some oxydative reaction between the hyphae of the fungus and the by product of the lignins broken down in the substrate whilst the fungus is decaying the substrate but the species is actually so rare that I couldn't find out anything about it so that is just an 'educated guess'.

Worth noting that P. sanguinea is supposedly 'common' and very often recorded, but there has only been one verified collection with voucher material in the last 70 years !


Nick

[CapAndBracket]

Hypomyces aurantius, hopefully i have got these right (it wasn't to easy to work with).


X1000

The spores (arrowed) are somewhat lenticular shape to my mind.


X1000

Hopefully having seen previous photo, in this one you can pick out the spores forming in asci (arrowed).


X1000

The cell structure of fruit body, you can see where they get their colour from, wish i understood all that i can see

Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

Many thanks as ever Nick, it's becoming a lot clearer now (if you start off with a baseline of crude oil !)

And as for J.P. - Having now mastered practically everything there is to know about micro-fungi, we now move on to Bacteria

Neil.

[CapAndBracket]

Oh no, i have a very long way to go.



Like with this Orbilia.sp from yesterday, growing on fir/pine, apparently there are a lot of them

Anyway with regard to bacteria, did you mean on fungi or mycologists

Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

I'll have you know that's good sterile compost behind my ears, if left long enough the heat build up kills off all the bacteria.

Orbilia's now is it ? they're easy mate - huge spores, absolutely huge, you will love them.

Neil.

[mykonik]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

Oh no, i have a very long way to go.



Like with this Orbilia.sp from yesterday, growing on fir/pine, apparently there are a lot of them

Anyway with regard to bacteria, did you mean on fungi or mycologists

Cheers J.P.

Could be Orbilia inflatula (= O. auricolor) JP. Try that one and see but there are an awful lot of them (species-wise) so you may still end up confused !

Nick

[CapAndBracket]

Thank's mykonik, i gave up on that one (no book covering it in depth)

Today a slight change, fungi on myxomycete.


Note neddle for scale.


X1000

The fungi looks to be a Penicillium.sp (Ellis + Ellis) list Penicillium brevi-compactum, but there are probably thousands. The image captures two fruit bodies together, nice stem (stype!) topped by branches and round clear spores at their tips.


X1000

The myxomycete appeared to be Arcyria oerstedtii, from(Ellis + Ellis) note obvious spines on the capillitium, a penicillium can be seen in the background obove capillitium. Will await fresh find of myxomycete and try for better images before submission to A-Z.

Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

J.P. (or may I call you 'Doc' ? - as by this time next year you may indeed be a Doc' at the rate I've seen you progressing since I joined WAB)

Anyway, the Ellis's used to live just up the coast from me in a beautiful town called Southwold (home to Adnams beer !) and I regularly used to take all my unidentified fungi to Martin where he would happily try to identify them for me, even allowing me into his upstairs study room where he would prepare a slide and show me the various features to aid identification.

Sadly, Martin is no longer with us, and Pam his wife, is in a care home the last I heard, suffice to say I felt compelled to buy their 2 books - 'Microfungi on Miscellaneous Substrates' and 'Microfungi on Land Plants' when the updated versions came out some years back. (I also have 2 interesting little books on fungi by Martin's elder brother Ted)

However, the reason I write this is because I can not find any mention of
'Arcyria oerstedtii' from(Ellis+Ellis)' you refer to in your last post.

Is this some other work by the Ellis's you are referring to ?

[CapAndBracket]

Top marks young man, this shows my novice ability, surrounded by open books.

The reference (Ellis+Ellis) for the penicillium.sp is correct, from the updated microfungi on miscellaneous substrates.

The reference to Arcyria oerstedtii should have been (Stephenson+Stempen),
from their Myxomycetes A handbook of slime moulds.


Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

Thanks J.P.
The sole reason I asked was that I thought you may have an interesting book by the Ellis's that I didn't know about, and would have wanted to add it to my wish list.

I fully understand how you made the typing slip up, I'm always getting overwhelmed with things scattered all over the place when I'm trying to I.D. something.

From (a not so 'young')

Neil.

[CapAndBracket]

I understand, the book list is endless.



Today on old leaves under beach/oak trees (they were on both), Diderma testaceum.


X1000

I did use a drop of cotton blue on these but the capillitium didn't take it up, remaining fine and hyaline with few braches (Stpephenson + Stempen), the finely warted spores average 9 um.
Still need to understand more about stains, there must be something these hayaline components will take.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Found today on rotten ash (Fraxinus) tree trunk lying on the ground. I thought to look at they were going to be a different Arcyria.sp


X1000

But the obviously spiny capillitium show they are Arcyria oerstedtii.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

I'm thinking this is a xylaria.sp that has been attacked by some mould,
the coloured surface is just a mass of spores.

Cheers J.P.

[mykonik]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

I'm thinking this is a xylaria.sp that has been attacked by some mould,
the coloured surface is just a mass of spores.

Cheers J.P.

You are right JP - Xylaria (probably X. polymorpha) with some kind of ? Penicilium mould on it.

Sometimes (quite commonly) one finds these fruitbodies covered in a white 'mould' - that is a species of Calcarisporium.

Nick