Favoritos de ikhom

in the sand and gravel beside a road/ three at different stages/ this one: cap 7.1 cm wide, stem narrower at apex 1.3 cm to 1.5 cm at base/ gills have a pinkish hue/ spore print: cream/ when fresh no odour, while drying ti, quite a strong & unpleasant odour/ spores: ellipsoid and unigutulate/ 9.8 - 10.8 x 6.1 - 6.4 microns

Found on decaying log in wet muddy area in mixed Forest. Micro take on 2 specimens. The Younger specimen with CR dye and the older with LCB dye. Spore sizes and shapes are fit with description. Phenotypically a match as well. Very small cups from 2mm to 3mm. Specimens were collected for DNA.

ID help appreciated.
iNat was very consistent in its top suggestion: Stalked Hairy Fairy Cup (Lachnum virgineum).
Totally love that name. I didn't see stalks, but they were so tiny who would know?
I backed up a couple of taxon levels as a starting place.

On burnt ground, dominaing but interdispersed with Anthrocobia sp. Unigutulate round spored reddish orange apothecia

(13.9) 14-15.3 (16.1) x (13.7) 13.7-15.3 (16)

N=23
Me = 14.7 x 14.6um
Qe =1.01

asci 206.3-216.2 x 15.5-18.8 um

On Tuilp Poplar bark in mature hardwood forest. Continuous white thallus, black lecideine apothecia well above the thallus. K-, C-, UV-. Spectacular big golden muriform spores, turning dark brown with maturity. 8 per ascus.

Growing on Odocoileus virginianus dung with Saccobolus minimoides observation 423523, Coprotus glaucellus observation 423498 and Coprinopsis sp. Subiculum absent. All Structures inamyloid. Hairs multiseptate and hyaline. Single polysporous ascus per ascocarp. Spores smooth, hyaline and eguttulate. Spore measurements: (8.9) 9.1 – 9.8 (10) × (6.9) 7.1 – 7.5 (8) µm, Q = (1.2) 1.23 – 1.37 (1.4); N = 30, Me = 9.4 × 7.3 µm; Qe = 1.3

Found by @ikhom

fruitbodies on rotten wood, superficially similar to small slime molds, but were found to be Ascomycetes under the microscope

Ascoma are gymnothecial (loose tangle of rather undifferentiated hyphae with asci) vivid neon yellow, about 0.5mm in diameter, but quite conspicuous because of their colors

Asci are highly reduced, saccate, probably evanescent, the only evidence to their presence was the clumps of around 8 spores that were tightly clumped together that could occasionally be seen on the slide (picture 2 and 3). Ascospores are hyaline (orange? in mass) conspicuously ornamented under immersion oil and measure 3.3 - 3.8 x 2 - 2.7µm.

I seem to recall @Keith_seifert showing me this fungi many years ago, but I unfortunately do not remember what species this is.

UPDATE 5 FEBRUARY 2022 ------

Picture 7 and onward were obtained from pure culture of this fungus on Malt Extract Agar (MEA) incubated at 25C for about 2 months. this species grow slowly, reaching about 10mm in diamter in this time

Homothallic, gymnothecia produced on media, gymnothecia salmon colored bu covered by vivid yellow hyphae, microscopy otherwise similar to in-situ. Picture 12 show unidentified swollen cells in culture, and picture 13 show what I believe are gymnothecial intiial.

unfortunately I was not able to get a match in the key to ''Gymnoascaceae" provided by Ainsworth et al. (1973) in their book '' The Fungi: An Advanced Treatise: Volume IVa: A Taxonomic Review with Keys: Ascomycetes & Fungi Imperfecti "

this collection have been retained for future molecular analysis, and I hope to update this with genetic sequences in the future sometime.