Small pale brown cupulate ascomycete on burnt wood

Here in Gozo (Central Mediterranean region) I have found a clump of small cupulate and shortly stipitate ascocarps growing on burned wood in damp silty soil. Some characteristics:

Ascum average size 108.8 µm x 7.7 µm // Iodine reaction J + ve,
Spore average size 11.4 µm x 6.5 µm // Spore Q factor 1.8
Paraphyses 120 x 3 µm, not differentiated at the apex
Croziers absent (Bit in doubt)
Asci contents stain dark reddish-brown in Iodine solution
Sporesnot perfectly symmetrical, bit grainy, two or few dar granules

The tissue below the hymenium stains bluish in Iodine.

Ciboria came to mind ...: / but no species on burnt

I agree with your opinion and I think what looked like burnt wood are the blackened and rather large sclerotia (?). Also, I had initially excluded this genus because member species tend to grow on acorns and fruit and this was just lying on the ground and apparently terrestrial. The Closest tree to this finding what Laurus nobilis and Ceratonia siliqua (further away) and a number of annual weeds, but oddly enough, there was a naturalized population of Chlorophytum comosum , and maybe the fungus was infecting underground tubers of this Liliaceae.

Anyway, thank you then for the hint!

Hi, can someone help me to find this document:

Synoptic Keys to the Sclerotiniaceae & Rutstroemiaceae in Nordic Countries [Norway, English]

The link for the file is broken on that site.

I.s the black sclerotium typical/distinctive for the species? (seeing its epithet is sclerotiorium)

Thanks

Good afternoon dear friends! I wish to thank you for your help. I finished my writeup about this species and I agree that all species in the genus have a Sclerotium and turns out that it is very diagnostic to distinguish the species. I had to base my research on old literature:

1. Hall, R. & Boland, G.J. (1994). Index of plant hosts of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 16:93–108. doi:10.1080/07060669409500766
2. Willets, H.J. & Wong, J. A.-L. (1980). The Biology of Sclerotina sclerotiorum, S. trifoliorum and S. minor with emphasis on specific nomenclature. The Botanical Review 46(2):101–165
3. Kohn, L.M. (1979). A monographic revision of the genus Sclerotinia. Mycotaxon 9: 365–444

Three related species are S. trifoliorium and S. minor but my specimen corresponds to S. sclerotiorium . Interestingly it was associated to Chlorophyton comosum, the only herbaceous weed that was present on site, and then a tree of Bay Laurel.

Zitat von nobi

Zitat von Steve_mt

Hi, can someone help me to find this document:

Synoptic Keys to the Sclerotiniaceae & Rutstroemiaceae in Nordic Countries [Norway, English]

Look here, Steve.

0 Synoptic keys to the inoperculate stromatic discomycetes in the Nordic countries.pdf

But if it will help you?

If you're interested in a special genus, ask me.

There are some more documents from Schumacher & Holst-Jensen, which I can send.

Regards, Nobi

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I am interested in the genus Sclerotinia - I only found old literature regarding morpghological identification of three related species. I believe my specimen is S. sclerotiorium

DOWNLOADED xxx

Many thanks, Sir Nobi - They will be helpful and makes my Digital Library a bit more interesting!