ID assistance for Peziza sp.

[RobSutton]

Found this on a well rotten stump of some type of deciduous tree (could be either Ash, Sycamore or Beech).



Am I correct in thinking it's a Peziza sp.?

Attempting to do some microscopy I found some large spores:



and what I thought could be paraphyses:



Do these help narrow it down at all? The various books I've looked at (Phillips, Jordan and B&K) all seem to show things that look close but nothing I'm convinced about and it seems as if the taxonomy is in a state of flux for some of them - is there a current recommended tome?

Incidentally I also found various odd "commensals" within the fungus - various diatoms, algae and a nematode as well as one or two other things I have no idea about. If I get time I might post some micrographs of them.

Thanks for any help.

[KeenTeen17]

hi Rob. how do you get such good micro shots of the spores etc. of Peziza sp. they look like they are hard to get spores from because with a basidiomycete mushroom, you can just cut off the stem and wait for the spores to deposit. what do you do with a Peziza or a Scuttelinia

[NickCantle]

Possibly Peziza vesiculosa Rob, but that's going on the aesthetics and not your 'scope info-(no literature to hand! ). What's the world coming to when you can't bring FOS Vol.III to work

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by KeenTeen17

hi Rob. how do you get such good micro shots of the spores etc. of Peziza sp. they look like they are hard to get spores from because with a basidiomycete mushroom, you can just cut off the stem and wait for the spores to deposit. what do you do with a Peziza or a Scuttelinia

You cut a section of the inner surface off (generally no larger than the size of a pin head) with a sharp scalpel and apply it to your slide. Ascomycetes under the microscope are just so beautiful. What I'm annoyed at is the fact that I can't use a measuring graticule when I use my camera because my graticule is in the eyepiece- which I have to substitute for the camera

If you're after defining microscopic characteristics of any gilled mushroom KT, you really need to be cutting from the lamellar edge to be sure (hopefully) that you find cheilocystidia. Without these, it can be more difficult to identify things to species- I don't think you've got much chance of finding cheilocystidia in a spore print- just spores.

[RobSutton]

Hi KT - just like Nick says -

Originally Posted by NickCantle

You cut a section of the inner surface off (generally no larger than the size of a pin head) with a sharp scalpel and apply it to your slide. Ascomycetes under the microscope are just so beautiful. What I'm annoyed at is the fact that I can't use a measuring graticule when I use my camera because my graticule is in the eyepiece- which I have to substitute for the camera

If you're after defining microscopic characteristics of any gilled mushroom KT, you really need to be cutting from the lamellar edge to be sure (hopefully) that you find cheilocystidia. Without these, it can be more difficult to identify things to species- I don't think you've got much chance of finding cheilocystidia in a spore print- just spores.

a bit of practice helps as well - I'm getting better!

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

Possibly Peziza vesiculosa Rob, but that's going on the aesthetics and not your 'scope info-(no literature to hand! ). What's the world coming to when you can't bring FOS Vol.III to work

Hi Nick - a shame when work gets in the way of things isn't it. I didn't find FoS a great help with this one everything seemed to contradict something else for all of them if you see what I mean

[Chris Yeates]

hi

I agree it looks like vesiculosa but that is a species of rich composted soil / hay and (chiefly) dung . . .

of the lignicolous species P. ampliata is a possibility based on spore size - are the spores smooth? it's not possible to be 100% from the photo; I assume these are in Cotton Blue; a water mount would be useful as CB can cause spores to go out of shape on occasion

Chris

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

how about Peziza granulosa - microscopics seem to fit and I think I can see some fine dark scales on the outer surface

neil

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

hi

I agree it looks like vesiculosa but that is a species of rich composted soil / hay and (chiefly) dung . . .

of the lignicolous species P. ampliata is a possibility based on spore size - are the spores smooth? it's not possible to be 100% from the photo; I assume these are in Cotton Blue; a water mount would be useful as CB can cause spores to go out of shape on occasion

Chris

I thought they were smooth but a few of the darker ones (I presumed more mature ones?) seemed to show some irregularity around the margin that I wondered if it could some form of reticulation developing. Your comments about cotton blue make me wonder if it is due to that instead - in which case I'd say they were smooth. I'll see if I've got enough material to look again in water. I only collected a tiny bit of this one, it was near a path and I like to leave visible stuff for others to see if at all possible.

Originally Posted by wildlifesnapper

Hi

how about Peziza granulosa - microscopics seem to fit and I think I can see some fine dark scales on the outer surface

neil

I'll have to get the books out again, I did try Mezlers on this as well as CB and the tips of the asci didn't seem to blue as the books say they do for granulosa?