Hygroscopic Black Smudge for ID

[fairplay]

Nah, I was just showing off coz I though I got a real bargain - fiver eh ? jammy so and so !

Neil.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by stickman

I was about to ask about literature for the coelomycetes . . . .
Nick.

a difficult one . . . there are several points here

(a) because anamorphic fungi are inherently problematical, in that a number of similar looking 'species' are being proved, through molecular work to be not related at all - so we are dealing with a heterogeneous group . . . that leads to difficulties

(b) because we have been blinkered, insofar as much earlier work was European based - once you go global the picture gets more interesting but much more complex

(c) the 'coelomycetes' are inherently tricky - many of the parasitic ones appear have strict host associations, but morphologically they can be very similar (unlike what we have been dealing with above); molecular studies seem to be showing that they are distinct - 'species' if we choose to use that label as a distinguishing one (see (a) )

(d) Brian Sutton's book - and quite understandably so - adopts a very broad brush approach; it is most useful at the generic level; huge genera like Phoma, Phomopsis and Phyllosticta are brushed over quite superficially; to be "to be better up to date" you don't use a book published over 30 years ago - unfortunately that later book does not exist - merely lots of isolated articles dealing with small corners of the jigsaw

(e) the solution (such as it is) is to collect material in good condition, examine it, make notes/photo's if you can, then carefully dry it, label it, packet it with collection details and then lodge it in a local museum or national collection - we can live in hope that at some stage, when someone comes to write an account of a group, those collections will be available for that someone to study . . . . it may not be for a while (but then again the lifetime of the universe is not infinite - so why are we bothering?)

(f) ironically probably the best (2) books to have are the two volumes of W.B. Grove's British Leaf and Stem Fungi published around 85 years ago; many of the 'species' dealt with there are proving to be good species

I shall endeavour to concentrate on this area on the Fungal Plant Parasites thread - this should help to highlight the pluses and minuses of coelomycetous studies

Chris

[nige]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

We are saying that we have - in Rob's original case - a black mush probably caused by a 4th (currently unknown) fungus and - probably in Rob's case, but certainly not in Nick's - stray spores from the Fagus trapped in that mush

because these spores are pretty distinctive (unlike those of many larger fungi) we can put a name to two of them (the brown curved one and the tetra-radiate "starry" one)

We don't have a name to the Nectria yet (though I suspect Nectria coccinea); the imperfect stages which often accompany the sexual stages of Nectria species are often of considerable importance when naming them - for example the pinkish cushions of the familiar "coral spot fungus" are actually its Tubercularia imperfect state - I can't see the perfect state here for example: Coral Spot | Wild About Britain

hence all the discsussion about relatedness or not . . . . does that make sense?

Chris

Thanks Chris, I suppose at this level there is so much unknown although this would make a great p.h.d study for someone. Good luck guys.