Fungi with moss as hosts

diggleken · Post by **diggleken** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 7:27 pm

On macro characters alone that's similar to what I recognise as A retiruga...........

jimmymac2 · Post by **jimmymac2** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:16 pm

Thanks Ken. I'm not sure though now as I think it might be the rarer A.spathulata as it is on a acrocarp and not a pleurocarp.

Chris Yeates · Post by **Chris Yeates** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 11:40 am

jimmymac2 wrote:Are there any fungi which are specialised to have moss as hosts? . . . . .

As well as the bryoparasitic ascomycetes mentioned above, obvious basidio's would be:
* members of the genus Galerina (difficult without specialist literature - the popular books generally feature on a handful of those which occur in this country); people on this site could help - you need details of spore ornamentation (oil!) and of the cystidia on gill edge and stem (handle carefully or these may disappear); also some are two-spored.
* members of the genus Rickenella - with experience these can be done in the field
* then there are odd members of genera like Hypholoma, Tephrocybe etc which have a moss-inhabiting lifestyle.

jimmymac2 wrote:Hi Chris,
Moss ID to species is no problem for me, I've been doing bryology much longer than mycology. . . . .

In that case definitely have a go at the asco's - if you get decent pic's /measurements of spore ornamentation and know the host there are plenty of people on http://www.ascofrance.com/ who are very knowledgeable about them and always willing to help. Keep an eye on Orthotrichum affine - look for unhealthy-looking areas and then have a bit of a 'delve' as the fungus occurs on the rhizoids - and you could get the 3rd British record (first in Sussex, this in Yorkshire, so it's presumably all over the place even though only described in 2006!) of Octospora affinis: