Salut à tous,

I have collected this species which I can't identify which grows sparsely on (living) ascomata of Echinosphaeria canescens in the South of England (June 8th 2014):

Pseudothecia pale orange to pink, to 270 µm diam.

Ascospores 62-135 x 3.3- 4.7 µm, hyaline, multiguttulate, (11)-14-(16) septate, tending to be more cylindrical towards the apical end and more acute towards the basal end. Helicoidally twisted inside the ascus but seeming to 'unwind' as the ascus reaches full turgor.

Asci thick-walled (especially when dead), no apical apparatus.

Hairs encircling the ostiolar area, hyaline, aseptate, thick-glassy walled, sometimes aggregating into 'tufts', to 160µm long.

There were three types of conidia present that I thought might be of interest - Types of conidia I usually associate with aquatic habitats (particulaly the Articulospora-like ones) but this was collected in a dry place, well away from any water source.

I should perhaps add that I'm not sure if there is any material left on the branch I collected - Trying to find the tiny pseudothecia in amongst the Echinosphaeria spines is quite difficult!

I was quite unsatisfied with my photographs of the species, so I also prepared a sketch that may (or may not) make things clearer.

Can anyone help?

Amitiés,

Hans-Otto Baral, 09-07-2014 10:07

Re : Tricky Tubeufiaceae?

We had a similar species, probably the same genus:

http://www.ascofrance.fr/forum?id=30212

Spores shorter: 48-55 x 2.5-5.8 µm , with much less septa (3-5).
On Fagus bark in association with Tubeufia cerea.

The Trinacrium-like conidia you have observed belong to Orbiliaceae, but the curved ones might belong to the pyreno.

Zotto