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Lichen or bark fungus?

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  • March 25, 2025 at 1:40 pm #33019
    JennyS

      On a twig – a small perithecium (?) with a flattened, concave apex, K+ brownish-green but photobiont absent.

      Asci possibly less than 8-spored, spores green > brown, (1-)3(-4) septate, occasionally with a vertical septa, 22-25 x 10-12 µm. Some, but not all, of the septa were noticeably pale.

      In addition the spores had a translucent appendage (approximately half spore length) lost at maturity but leaving a truncate base.

      A bark fungus but I’m hoping it might be one of the non-lichenised fungi recorded by lichenologists and with a BLS number, though attempting to key it out failed?

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      March 25, 2025 at 1:50 pm #46541
      maxieput901

        Hi Jenny

        I keep finding these and hunting unsuccessfully in Ellis & Ellis for clues. It does look like a fungus as I find their spores are often thick walled and coloured. I once spoke to a mycologist about it and confirmed that there are likely to be a significant number of bark fungi not yet described or named so not easy.

        I had one barcoded recently and the only information I got was that it was a fungus!

        Maxine

        March 26, 2025 at 10:41 pm #46542
        JennyS

          Thanks for the reply Maxine – and yes, I got nowhere with Ellis & Ellis but after checking all the non-lichenised lichens (thanks to a link Anthony Speca posted on Bluesky) its not one with a BLS number.

          I gave a year or two to trying to get somewhere with micro-fungi but in the end gave it up as a fairly hopeless endeavor!

          March 28, 2025 at 4:44 pm #46543
          Paul Cannon
          Participant

            Hi Jenny

            This looked familiar, and after a bit of digging around and putting one of your images through Google Lens (this is getting really useful…) it pointed towards one of my own pictures on the FGBI website. This is misbehaving yet again but you might be able to catch it unawares, see https://fungi.myspecies.info/all-fungi/rebentischia-unicaudata” class=”bbcode_url”>https://fungi.myspecies.info/all-fungi/rebentischia-unicaudata. Looking through the literature, it’s possible that you have R. massalongii rather than R. unicaudata, but the genus is not well known and the distinction between them isn’t entirely clear. If the FGBI site doesn’t cooperate, one of the spore images is attached.

            If you have more of it I’d be pleased to look at it in more detail, it would be good to get a better handle on the variation – especially as yours seems to have 4-spored asci and spores with longitudinal septa – neither of these features are typical of either species and there aren’t any sequences of any of them…

            Best wishes

            Paul

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            March 28, 2025 at 6:20 pm #46544
            JennyS

              Thank you so much Paul – I’d hoped you might come across this thread.

              You might be in luck with a specimen as I saved the twig it was on and looking at the twig again there are possibly a couple smaller perithecia near the one posted here……..

              I only saved the twig as next to the possible Rebentischia were raised, whitish pycnidia on a thin greenish-white thallus (C-,K-,UV-(mauve) K/UV whitish).

              The pycnidia were topped by +/- globular ‘blobs’ containing +/- globular or pyriform conidia, c2.5 µm – which I’m still failing to identify!

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              Thanks again and I’ll try and remember to put it in the post to you tomorrow (and if not,Monday)

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