Are these the most elegant spores in the UK?

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Beamish

Hi Chris,

my find wasn't close to any water at all, it is from the courtyard of my office and holly isn't a classic inhabitant of wetlands isn't it? As V.i. beeing an at least semi-xerotolerant species growing on still attached twigs, I don't belive in the aquatic theory at a first glance.
But, when you can make it in the air you can make it everywhere... ;-)

Cheers,

Martin

that's interesting - I knew I needed to make a point of checking habitats away from water, I tended to look harder in the sites where I suspected I would find it - hence a self-fulfilling prophecy; but what was the provenance of your holly? a purchased plant? - maybe the fungus's spores are doomed to fail as they leave yours . . . . . does its appearance on still-attached twigs result from a long-term existence as an endophyte with sporulation only triggered by a weakness in the twigs?

all just questions with no provable answers, but there has to be some reason for those spores being that distinctive, often 3-dimensional shape - if it was so effective we would see it appear time and time again - at least in conidia one would suspect (of course we do encounter it in conidia but in aquatic ones)

I have contacted Shoemaker by the way- no response as yet; there is an article:
A Preliminary Overview of the Diaporthales Based on Large Subunit Nuclear Ribosomal DNA Sequences, Author(s): Lisa A. Castlebury, Amy Y. Rossman, Walter J. Jaklitsch, Larissa N. Vasilyeva
Source: Mycologia, Vol. 94, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2002), pp. 1017-1031
with the comment: " . . . . . All three cultures deposited as Vialaea insculpta (Fr. : Fr.) Sacc. at CBS were sequenced, but none of these proved to belong in the Sordariomycetidae. . . . ." whether they are hinting that the cultures were not what they claimed I'm not sure, but it seems that it remains unsequenced

intriguing

cheers

Chris

[Beamish]

Hi Chris,

the holly at my office is maybe planted there but a long time ago. It is about 4 meters high. I found the Vialaea on thin dry twiglets only (15 to 25 cm in lenght) attached to the stem in the inner of the shrub.
While examining some dead ascocarps I encountered three different types of conidia (pictures attached). Did you see something like that, too? When I am back to Germany in October, I will try to find some fresh specimens.
And thank you for the hint to that Mycologia article!

Regards,

Martin

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Beamish

hi Martin

these are beta- (top) and alpha- (bottom) conidia of Phomopsis crustosa the anamorph of Diaporthe crustosa Sacc. & Roum.; I can't speak about the first Phoma-like ones

when I look at 'black dots' on Ilex twigs they usually turn out to be this; Vialaea is much less frequent

cheers

Chris

[Beamish]

Thanks Chris,
for solving this!

Cheers

Martin