Synnematous fungus - new species? (STILBACEAE)

[MaxRum]

Dear friends,

I am attempting to identify a mushroom which must by something very unusual, rare or perhaps something new since no identity could be reached after consulting another two fora. Trying my luck with UK perhaps there are someone familiar with it or perhaps lead me to contact some expert.


Tiny fungus found on decaying bark, about 0.5-1.0mm long with a yellowish-tobacco 'stipe' (which I believe it is a coremia), quite tough and sometimes developing a black sheath at the base, supporting a sporocarp which is irregularly round or ovate, covered in a greyish olive-green mass of spores. This is also quite tough and a cross section reveals a pale medulla and a dark green cortex (reproductive layer).

Under the microscope, I interpreted the fungus is composed of a densely packed layer of penicillate structures composed of a series of x4-x6 divaricating branches until finally they end with a 15-18um philaide producing one lachrymoid spore (5-6um long). The philaide have slightly pigmented wall, and an acute apex. Phialides and underlying branching elements with longitudinally irregular/sinuated/crooked margins.

Spores not produced in chains, polyblastic.

IN KOH the sporocarp becomes black-dark green

I am convinced that it is a STILBACEAE family (care this name is also given to a family angiosperms) or maybe Tuberculariaceae

[Ganoderma resinaceum]

If you have samples, it might be wise to contact Kew Gardens' mycology section and discuss it with them / send them samples. Good luck!

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi and welcome to UK Fungi.

You mention trying elsewhere without success, and now trying UK

Do you mean that these were found outside of the UK? - or that you are now trying here at UK Fungi?

If found outside of the UK, it would be a good idea to say exactly where in the world they were found.

Regards,
Mike.

[MaxRum]

Dear all,

Sorry for the incomplete data re my Demetiaous fungus. First of all, I have posted this on ascofrance.fr and the link is here:
http://www.ascofrance.fr/forum?page=1&id=45593

I am a Maltese botanist and I am entering in the world of Mycology... macrofungi are interesting but I find most challenging and interesting the microfungi and myxomycetes. This particular species was found on decaying branchlet lying on a humid, shaded but not wet ground under a canopy of olives.

I wanted to share other photos so here are some more.

[MaxRum]

Some more photos....

So I was tipped that since the conidiophore has wall thickenings = pigmented... it should fall within the order of Demetiales and forget Moniales.

[MaxRum]

If you have samples, it might be wise to contact Kew Gardens' mycology section and discuss it with them / send them samples. Good luck!

Hi, I think this fungus is also obscure to UK mycologists, students and amateurs. Do you have a direct link or contact person's email for kew Gardens because prior sending some sample i wish to speak and inform the mycologist in charge. Does storing some specimen in 95% ethonal help and is a good idea to preserve the morphology?

Many thanks

[MaxRum]

Sorry - it wasn't difficult to find the contacts afterall. Posting the link for others who have the same query.

http://www.kew.org/science/mycolstaff.html

[Chris Yeates]

If you have samples, it might be wise to contact Kew Gardens' mycology section and discuss it with them / send them samples. Good luck!

Hi, I think this fungus is also obscure to UK mycologists, students and amateurs. Do you have a direct link or contact person's email for kew Gardens because prior sending some sample i wish to speak and inform the mycologist in charge. Does storing some specimen in 95% ethonal help and is a good idea to preserve the morphology?

Many thanks

Hello
with an anamorphic fungus like this ones hopes of an identification should generally be pessimistic. I don't think that the mycologists at Kew would feel themselves able to comment; in the days of the Commonwealth/International Mycological Institute things might have been different, but mycological taxonomy in the UK has (sadly) shrunk since those days.
The fungus would have to be cultured and then sequenced; storing it in ethanol - and thereby killing it - would render it useless for both those purposes. I doubt that it is new, there are probably sequences waiting at institutions like https://www.knaw.nl/en/institutes/cbs or indeed fungi waiting to be sequenced there which might place your fungus somewhere in the picture.
Not a happy state of affairs, but a realistic one. If no-one at ASCOFrance was prepared to offer help then, I am afraid, we in the UK are not the answer . . .
Chris

PS if it is any consolation, then I, with my interest in micro-fungi, regularly find what appear to be interesting / identifiable anamorphic fungi; in general they are (regretfully) consigned to the bin . . .

[MaxRum]

Indeed not even an acknowledgement from Kew, and perhaps the reason is within your message.

Could you suggest few places (institutions, laboratories, research centres) where for this or in the future i can submit specimens for sequencing and get ID by a genetic approach, apart the one from NL ? Usually do they ask for money and how much (very roughly ?)

I shall be contacting NL, but the remaining specimen is not very good I am afraid.

I got some help and literature from ASCO.fr. Would be great in this forum to open a section with stored literature, monographs, papers, articles, ebooks, sorted according the fungal classification to serve as a online and easy-access library of docs/literature.


Thanks

[Chris Yeates]

. . . . . Would be great in this forum to open a section with stored literature, monographs, papers, articles, ebooks, sorted according the fungal classification to serve as a online and easy-access library of docs/literature.
Thanks

At least this is a start . . . viewtopic.php?f=3&t=156
Chris

[MaxRum]

That's really useful well done - keep updating and maybe later on, classify the literature for an easier access, like a small post-based library.


In the meantime, I have found a closely (?) related genus for my fungus: HARPOGRAPHIUM Sacc.
Synnemata dark brown, the upper spore-bearing portion capitate to elongate, fibrous, the hyphae with thick stubby tips, conidia hyaline, more or less falcate, 1-celled, saprophytic on bark and wood.

http://www.biodiversidadvirtual.org/hon ... 26733.html

Still it does not have the complete jizz, (eg falcate conidia) but I think I am getting closer. The feathery sterile mycelia is a good match! I am assuming that the white feathery structures in my specimen (/photos) are the same organism with those myxomycete-like morph with bluish-green heads and yellowish stalks which another assumption is that it is a synnematum. Sometimes I have doubts on the latter because the stipe part consists of developped leathery (hard) tissue made of different tissue from the penicillate head.

How can I know and check which genera are seated losely related to this genus within a clade ?