Fungi on Hazel Shell for ID please

[Nettle Runner]

Anston Stones Wood 2 August 2008

Found lots of Hazel shells with fungi on them.





As the fungi is a "white saucer on a distinct stem", could these be Hymenoscyphus fagineus, as suggested in Jordan, Just don't ask me to pronounce this one

Your comments and observations welcomed
Les

[CapAndBracket]

Looks the similar to those i found on 19th last month



I came to same conclusion as to best gess at name.

Cheers J.P.

[Leif]

Originally Posted by Nettle Runner

Anston Stones Wood 2 August 2008

Found lots of Hazel shells with fungi on them.





As the fungi is a "white saucer on a distinct stem", could these be Hymenoscyphus fagineus, as suggested in Jordan, Just don't ask me to pronounce this one

Your comments and observations welcomed
Les

Nice find. I would say "Hi-mee-no-sye-fus fa-gee-nee-us". I'm sure others will not refrain from correcting me.

[fairplay]

Ell-double-u-jays is easier !

Neil.

[AlanS]

This appears to be Hymenoscyphus fructigenus - which is the usual small, stalked discomycete on hazel shells. (I refer to both Les's and J.P.'s photographs.)

"fagineus" means 'pertaining to Fagus', i.e. Beech, and H. fagineus indeed is host-specific to Beech.

However, H. fagineus is characterised macroscopically by its almost lack of stalks - white, stalked discomycetes on Beech mast are generally H. rokebyensis. So possibly some confusion here?

H. fructigenus is seemingly less host-specific, though personally I have found it only on Hazel. A lot of old records undoubtedly refer to H. rokebyensis.

Alan

[AlanS]

I am not sure I fully eliminated gibberish from my post above, and as the chance to re-edit it now seems to have expired, I'll continue here with some clarifications.

Hymenoscyphus as a genus is characterised macroscopically by the small cups or disks being stalked (and cup margins without differentiated hairs). That's a bit simplistic, and not everything that fits that description is, or ever has been, a Hymenoscyphus. The genus (formerly called 'Helotium') has been further split up a little, and if I ever write up some of my own past work I may add to this process.

The stalk is moderately important and one of the best known exceptions, H. herbarum (common on plant debris) has now been moved to another genus. So when I suggested in my previous post that H. fagineus can lack stalks, this was a bit misleading. However, the stalks are usually very short and often hardly apparent.

My copy of Jordan's 'Encyclopedia' is rather old (1995) and in that, he gives "H. fructigenus", but with a photograph of a discomycete on the cupules (outer husks) of beech mast. In my view the photograph shows very typical H. fagineus. To be fair to Jordan, quite a few mycologists were making the same mistake at that time. I would guess from Les's post that the current 'Jordan' (which I don't have) is still using the same photograph, but with a correct name and description, so no doubt all is well.

Even though outdated, the 'Bible' on these things is an account of the 'Helotiaceae' by R.W.G. Dennis in 1956. In that he clearly separated H. fructigenus and H. fagineus, but under H. fructigenus he described the usual form on hazel nuts and then noted that the fungus on beech cupules was slightly different and had shorter spores, He wrote a description of a collection from Rokeby in Yorkshire. Continental workers subsequently used this collection to define the separate species, H. rokebyensis, and in my view they were correct to do so.

So this gives us three species on nuts etc.

H. fructigenus (as shown in photos above) - long stalks, spores 13-21 x 3-4 micrometres (Dennis's measurements). Common on old shells of hazelnuts and frequent on old acorns (which I have seen several times despite my memory blip in my post above). Also authentically recorded on old stones of Prunus (plums and/or cherries). Probably does NOT occur on Beech cupules, past records now being referable to H. fagineus or H. rokebyensis.

H. rokebyensis - differs from H. fructigenus in the shorter and more cylindrical spores, 10-14 x 3-4 micrometres. Common on old Beech cupules.

H. fagineus - very shortly stalked and often appearing sessile, spores elliptic to pip-shaped, 8-16 x 4-5 micrometres. Frequent on old Beech cupules.

Any of these are likely to be found in the current intermittently rainy weather by grubbing around in dampish leaf litter under the relevant tree.

Beware that on Beech cupules, stalked white discs are also likely to be Lachnum virgineum (aka Dasyscyphus virgineus) or Lachnum brevipilosum (aka Dasyscyphus brevipilus).
L. virgineum has distinct, radiating marginal hairs, easily seen with a hand-lens. L. brevipilosum also has such hairs but they are very short and may NOT be visible with a hand-lens. I don't doubt that field records of Hymenoscyphus spp. on Beech cupules also include this species.

And if grubbing around under Beech, look too for the black spikes of the small candle-snuff fungus that grows on Beech cupules - Xylaria carpophila.

Alan

[Note added after examining preview - the Forum is adding in links that are not authorised by me, the poster. Further, the link to Lachnum virgineum, as I have pointed out in another post, leads to photographs that, as far as I can tell without microscopic examination, are very typical L. brevipilosum!]

[cybershot]

Fascinating material Alan and as far as the links to the A to Z are concerned, you have as much leeway as anyone, and, judging from the above discourse, more right than most, to edit any mistakes you happen across in the Reference section (or for that matter even create new entries for species not yet represented.)

David

[CapAndBracket]

Well done Alan on that thorough dissertation.
I gess i need the Ellis and Ellis fungi on plants.



Not sure where these fit in on the scheme, they seem a part match for a couple of species.


X20

Same species magnified, certainly no hairs/bristles in evidence, growing on small piece of
ash (well under ash tree) trampled in the mud by cattle.

Cheers J.P.