Once I started to study it seriously maybe I / we can give another try this season. So far this fungus has always defeated me. The ones growing here are above and feeding on another fungus so when I try to isolate the fungus on plates I get lot of contaminations and unable to send abroad. Yet once i managed to have a pure colony but I did not investigated it molecularly at that time. I am always too busy these days but maybe / hope to have free time soon. The examination of the teleomorph is important but from what I read and have been suggested (eg. AscoFrance) we definitely need to see the anamorph, and to have a 99% confirmation, send a pure colony for genetics. (ITS and maybe LSU). I think the populations I saw in Malta (on a black-crust stromatous fungus on expose bark) may correspond to the same or at most two different species.

More info here:

Cosmospora and its possible anamorph - Forum ASCOFrance

I went to check the population again, same spot, fresh specimens found and injured and dissected, but there was no sap released !!!. I hence assumed we are on the wrong track here with fuscobadia and allies as previously assumed. I did some research and the mossy habitat under Pinus led me to Peziza muscicola which fits very well. It seems to have got a new genus - Lagaliana.

Legaliana muscicola (Donadini) Van Vooren, Ascomycete.org 12 (4): 188 (2020) [MB#835844 ]

MICOLOGIA, di Salvatore Saitta - Peziza muscicola - Galleria fotografica

Yes you are right - stupid me ! It think it is Coprinellus radians which I saw young specimens in the same site. I did not know it becomes like that when fully mature.

Yes, I noticed that it was a little mouldy (I examined the best specimens) and probably the deflated spores is also another symptom but I did not know that it produce that 'fluffy' effect and that it renders the sample in a very bad state beyond identification. Good to learn this - tnx.

Yet maybe u are right and seems that I can't visualize the difference between the Badhamia and Physarum lime granules in the capillitium. I thought those in Badhamia are in the form of tubules and those of Physarum are bulky / blocky granules like the specimen here. From your comments I have it wrong and I really need to learn between the Badhamia granules and the Physarum granules because it is an important element in my keys too.

I don't know if you can mentor me in this regards

Best LG

Steve

Thanks Frank. I am excluding albidobadio and I trust this is Duportella not Porostereum.

I spent like 90 minutes observing several mount of specimens I collected a week ago, but a big disappointment as I found no informative data. I sliced the upper layers of the fungus where it was brownish or sometimes blackish.

The fungus is very hyaline and do not stain well with congo red. Then there was a lot of 'debris' and artifacts released from the mycelium, probably bacteria. I managed to see two spores (allantoid, ca. 7.5 um), clamp junctions, mycelia with short branches at the apex (?) and what seems to be special darker cystidia. I think in one case I saw a metalloid cystidia which was short. Apart that there was a tight meshwork of interwoven sterile mycelia and nothing very interesting, opposed to what other colleagues (E.g. Italian) found for both Duportella and Porostereum

Many thanks Frank I am excluding P. albidobadia and I trust this is Duportella not Porostereum.

I spent like 90 minutes observing several mount of specimens I collected a week ago, but a big disappointment as I found no informative data. I sliced the upper layers of the fungus where it was brownish or sometimes blackish.

The fungus is very hyaline in water and do not stain well with congo red. Then there was a lot of 'debris' and artifacts released from the mycelium, probably bacteria. I managed to see three spores (allantoid, ca. 7.5 um), clamp junctions, mycelia with short branches at the apex (?) and what seems to be special darker cystidia. I think in one case I saw a metalloid cystidia which was short. Apart from that there was a tight meshwork of interwoven sterile mycelia and nothing else very interesting, opposed to what other colleagues (Eg Italian) found for both Duportella and Porostereum. Maybe because it is viewed one week after collection.

Well, Duportella remains the best match.

Thank you Frank, you have been very helpful

I have a small collection of 18 myxocarps of what looks like to be a Diderma for its amorphous lime covering on the peridium, but nothing is matching in the genus (or Didymium) and the large lime granules indeed suggest to be a Physarum instead.

Description:

Gregarious, spherical (slightly compressed) myxocarps about 0.7 - 1.0 mm wide, sessile or a very tiny stalk (more a continuation of the plasmodium). I could not find a columella (quite sure it is absent) and not sure if the peridium is a single or double layer but I just saw a very thin membranous single layer on which the lime granules are sitting on. Capillitium lime granules large, angular, Y-shaped or lobed, bulky.

Spores 9-12 um, minutely and regularly spinose (short), without obvious ridges or dark edges, strangely many are collapsed and non viable.

There is indeed Physarum didermoides with spores 12-16um and P. diderma with spores 9-11um, but these are double-layered peridium and I can't really detect it. Also the outer lime of these two species is more cemented rather than fluffy. In the section of single-layer peridia, I have considered P. licheniforme but they are described to be smaller (up to 0.6mm) and on grass, P. ovisporum but I cant detect easily a pale line; P. cinereum but this grows on grass and leaves and P. daamsii, but this is a much smaller species (0.5mm max) and peridial lime is different.

So I am quite blocked on this finding.

Is that a one photo shot or a stacked image? In the former case I really need to update my 8 year old photographic gear to this standard.

I received another suggestion - Porostereum spadiceum but for a different collection - a fungus without violet hues between the brown and white zones (see images below)

Is the violet tinge shown in the original post specific to Duportella malenconii ? Maybe even I have a mixed collection here with 9060s seems to be a bit different from the rest ? It so confusing hehe! I should see the spores at this stage...

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Photos of another collection - similar to IMG 9060 in the original post. Is it still D. malenconii? - Small crusts merging into each other without forming resupinations or outgrowth brackets.

Duportella malenconii (syn. Peniophora malenconii ) makes more sense geographically, but how can one tell these two species apart morphologically? I have specimens that I can check, hopefully not involving an experienced task, such as the hyphal system.

Nevertheless, Peniophora albidobadia is reported from the Mediterranean region according to GBIF but the majority (99%) are from the US - hence there is fine thread of doubt that it may still be P. albidobadia from a distribution point of view.

Thank you. I have no diverse opinion on these difficult fungi so I l will label this collection as indicated. I try to collect a sample and compare the spores. I saw C. triumphalis on the internet and concur that it looks very similar. The paper below (describing C. triumphans) gives a further - it has very small spores and the basidiocarp darkens to orange with age. So I guess i have to revisit the site (8 days later) !

Studies in the Ceriporia purpurea Group (Polyporales, Basidiomycota), with Notes on Similar Ceriporia Species

Spirin et al., 2016

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309479857_Studies_in_the_Ceriporia_purpurea_Group_Polyporales_Basidiomycota_with_Notes_on_Similar_Ceriporia_Species/link/58621f7408aebf17d393b5cb/download

I found this Parasola sp. with distinct veil particles on the pileus. Unfortunately I was on weekend holiday and the specimen disintegrated 3 days later when back home. Is there a specific Parasola sp. which forms these veil flakes?. I found similar images of P. plicatilis that do that, but maybe its not a specific character.

Thank you

OK , I should fetch a sample and try to observe some spores and basidia and see to what I can compare in the book Polyporales by Berrnichia and Gordon. Ceriporia is a good indication - thank you (C. spissa have these colours). I will report further data here for discussion.

Dear Frank, (Tomentella),

Thank you for your valuable replies. I had estimated the spore size from sight (it appeared to be 5 divisions at 2.5um / div in IMG5248s ) but now I did a proper measurement with Pixmetre and the accurate sizes are:

(13.7) 14 - 16 (16.9) × (12.4) 13.1 - 15.3 (15.7) µm

Q = 1 - 1.1 ; N=24

Me = 15 × 14.3 µm ; Qe = 1

The wall (if I am interpreting it well) is much over 0.5um - typically 1.5-2.0um

The surface is a bit tricky, but when spores are focused at their equator, the outline is smooth, however there is some wrinkled surface showing in some spores that are focused on the surface ?!?

Yes the sample was found from Malta, close to the coast on a wooden plank used for building (under the roof). I think this is then Botryobasidium robustius ( Haplotrichum rubiginosum ).

I have still not understood how Haplotrichum rubiginosum (the Teleomorph) looks like - maybe mauve-pale purple like this:

http://www.pilzflora-ehingen.de/pilzflora/arthtml/brobustius.php

--------------

Spore measurement:

Is this polypore easy to identify from macrophotos ? Growing on the underside of a fallen plank of wood (unknown origin) in a damp habitat. Pore extremely small (4/mm perhaps).

What about Coniophora arida ?

I have already encountered Peniophora albobadia on Ceratonia siliqua, now I found something similar on falling and decaying branches of Olea europaea and possibly Schinus terebinthifolia. Do you confirm the species or I should do further checks. I do have specimens at home.

many thanks

At the end of the year, while my family were enjoying indoor pool in the hotel, I went to a small copse of olive trees in an urban areas and I found a small fungal treasure where i spent several hours. Amongst the bounty I found this beautiful microfungus growing from a plank of wood in advance state of decomposition. They formed small golden colonies (8-12mm) which often merged into each other. Looking with a magnifying glass, I could see fine threads of brown filaments (condiophores)

Under the microscope, the picture was very interesting too. The spores were globular, bright-golden yellow, about 12-13 um across, with what looks to be a lobed sporoplasm and a thick wall. These originated from an inflated, udder-like structure (= cow milking part!! ) with 4-10 well defined teats to which the conidiospores were attached. In turn these inflated structures were present on the terminal parts of thick-walled, septate, brownish hyphae arising from a mat of white mycelium on the substrate. The substrate was an old wooden plank (fallen from a ceiling) and dumped at the side of a damp olive plantation. Cant say the origin of the wood.

Now I am reading about P. badiofuscoides through a paper by Calonge et al. (2009):

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319448768_PEZIZA_BADIOFUSCOIDES_DONADINI_AND_SIMILAR_SPECIES

P. badiofuscoides is showing a solid match in terms of asci size (reported as 280-300 µm); ascospore size 15-19 x 7-9 um and habitat in damp soil under pine. Being 3-5cm, it is a smaller species from badia ( up to 10cm) and is another feature closer to my findings. However there is one problem - my ascospores have 2 oil bodies (one mentioned for badiofuscoides).

https://www.mycocharentes.fr/pdf1/2116.pdf

However their keys mention 5 other species, sadly noy badiofusca which I eliminated them all except for P. phlebospora. I dont have much info on this species.

Dear friends. Sorry for my absence but I took a break to spend with my family - although I couldn't take a break from fungi and did some forays near the hotel!

OK back to this peziza, I just read a paper on P. saniosa (Ukranian finding) and I immediately noticed that the ascospores of their findings have very large warts compared to mine. Reading further, I saw that the asci at 360-400 um are much longer compared to my 250-300 um, and the habitat is not the same too. The ascospore length of the Ukrainian P. saniosa is reported to be 15.5-16.2 x 7.5-8.2 um is a bit shorter to that of my samples having sizes about 15.2 - 18.1 × 7.5 - 9.6 um (not sure if they included or excluded the ornamentation).

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342621145_A_new_record_of_the_rare_fungus_Peziza_saniosa_Pezizales_Ascomycota_in_Ukraine

Saying that, morphologically is a closely related species and I do not have the keys which tell apart these species (maybe these large warts are not significant after all). Unfortunately, I did not injure fresh specimens to check the bluish-latex, but slicing specimens 24-32 hours after collection did not produce latex but the flesh was greyish with a blue tinge. hmmm...

Links not working anymore - which to compare you badiofusca

LG Steve

Spores at high magnification in Cotton Blue reveal short ridges and big irregular warts which corresponds to Peziza badiofusca. The flesh shows a whitish flesh. I think this is close to the suspected species. Mossy habitat, colour, spore size, ... many characters matching (but not sure if there are other Pezizas to consider!. Pitty I have not dissected a fresh specimen to check for whitish latex, but the cross section of an old specimen shows a bit of white.

Micro-morphology:

Asci 255-288 um long, 13-15um wide

Spores with two oil bodies, broadly elliptical, with strong ornamentation, sizes:

(13.8) 15.2 - 18.1 (18.4) × (6.7) 7.5 - 9.6 (11.3) err

Q = (1.6) 1.8 - 2.1 (2.3) ; N = 21

Me = 16.6 × 8.8 err ; Qe = 1.9

Medullary excipulum of large globose to slightly angular hyphae, some reaching 50um across!

I think this is Peziza badiofusca

Today I worked on an interesting blackish-brown cup-fungus immersed in mossy calcareous soil in a forest margin (limestone based) here in Ma lta.

• Fruiting bodies 1-2cm wide , blackish-brown, appearing purplish-mauve in sunlight.
• Rim turned inwards, somewhat shallowly warted, without hairs
• Ascii 8-spores, cylindrical and straight, 280-320 un long, J+ve (strongly +ve to Iodine sol.) base bulbous, slightly two-lobed (Croziers?)
• Paraphyses slightly longer than the asci, with slightly swollen tips or sometimes like a golf-club (bent)
• Spores elliptical, thick-walled, with two guttulae, and margin distinctly roughened and reticulate.

Now as it is, it resembles P. badia, but I think this has a little lighter brownish colour and its distribution is northern, and in acidic soils. I wonder if there are vicariants species of P. badia in the Mediterranean region looking like my specimen. P. violaceae maybe ?

P.S. I forgot photos at work - will upload shortly (sorry!)

Thank you Frank x x x

I am happy to add another species to the Maltese Mycoflora

Merry Christmas to you and dear ones

best wishes

Steve

Hello,

I have worked on this difficult polypore and consulted the last monograph by Berrnichia and maybe I have a conclusion between two species: This is the info I have

• Basidiome on a dead twig of Pinus halepensis in Malta (Xerophilic habitat)
• Basidiome with a slight bluish-grey tinge
• Basidiospores 4.5-6.0 um long x 1.5-2.2 um wide, allantoid (curved cylindrical with rounded ends) - but they are very hyaline, do not stain well, and are so difficult to have a focused outline - maybe they are 15% smaller due to measuring of an unfocused wall, yet I am sure the width is >1.5um wide.
• about 4 to 5 pores / mm (I counted the number of pores fitting in 1 mm as they are naturally present in the hymenium - not taking the mean pore width and dividing it by 1mm - I hope this is the way to measure this)
• The surface of the cap is smooth, felted but compact down to a smooth surface in a mature basidiome, somewhat pubescent at the stipe and margin.
• Hypha of the surface are smooth, sometimes becoming bluish-grey at the tip
• When added pieces of mycelium in congo red, the stain became momentarily dark reddish-black.
• Large clamp junctions.

With this data and using Polyporales keys (Berrnichia & Gorjon) I am in the P. caesia, P. simulans and P. mediterraneocaesia dilemma.

P. caesia is given as spores up to 5um while P. simulans up to 5-6 (now that's very borderline to base a distinction!) however these two are said to have pubescent pilear surface and P. simulans or borealic/northern species.

The surface of my specimen is pubescent at the stipe attachment then its pubescence is soften to a compact texture, which if assumed to be smooth, the identification will fall onto P. mediterraneocaesia.

The spores of the latter species(4.2-6.1 x 1.4-1.7) fits with those of my specimen, so does the smallish size, host, habitat and Mediterranean distribution but P. mediterraneocaesia is defined to have an encrusted/rough hyphae at the epicutis (assumable referring to the outer surface of the pileus) but my specimens have them smooth. I mounted them in KOH so I hope that would not provide some reaction on the crystals. Saying that I saw exceptional hyphae with a roughened surface (that was mounted in water).

P. simulans is a northern species so it could be ruled out for that reason.

Your comments are more then welcomed (P. caesia(/P.simulans) or P. mediterraneocaesia ?)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323855557_Postia_caesia_complex_Polyporales_Basidiomycota_in_temperate_Northern_Hemisphere