orange mushroom eater- mold

Description:

The species in Hypomyces are fungi that parasitize mushrooms, covering them with powders, pimply crusts, and so on. Often the parasite fungus so transforms the host mushroom that it's impossible to tell what the host was ----- H. aurantius (Pers.: Fr.) Tul. - All available descriptions Substrata. Growing on fruitbodies of fungi, wood or bark, or occasionally on litter, mosses or ground, next to decayed agarics; Hosts belonging to Agaricales (mostly wood-decaying species), aphyllophorales or rarely heterobasidiomycetes: Armillaria, Auricularia, Bjerkandera, Cerrena, Clitocybe, Collybia, Cystoderma, Flammulina, Fomes, Fomitopsis, Inonotus, Irpex, Laetiporus, Lenzites, Phaeolus, Phellinus, Piptoporus, Pleurotus, Polyporus, Ramaria, Schizophyllum, Schizopora, Stereum, Trametes, Trichaptum. Covering host's hymenophore or host's hymenophore and host's pileus; host basidiomata become decayed or with no apparent change observed. ----- Subiculum profuse, white or orange, turning purple in aq. KOH solution; texture hyphal, hyphae loosely interwoven, with cells 4-6 µm in diam, becoming swollen. Perithecia formed all over or only in some parts of the subiculum, gregarious or in some specimens caespitose, semi-immersed in the subiculum; (250-)350-570 × 200-375 µm; orange, KOH reaction with the whole perithecium turning purple. Perithecial papillae 75-100 µm high, 150-200 µm wide at the base; tip obtuse; of pseudoparenchymatous texture, with cells in divergent files, becoming narrower toward the ostiolar canal and more rounded towards the outer surface. Asci 100-160 × 6-7 µm; with apex thickened, penetrated by a pore. Ascospores fusiform, 20-25 × 4-6 µm; 1-septate, septum median; wall verrucose, verrucae arranged uniformly, 0.5 µm high; ends apiculate; apiculi 2-4.5 µm long, with tips acute. Anamorph in nature easily recognized through the profuse pure white cottony mat. The powdery appearance is due to the conidia that are usually formed in abundance and held in long chains. Colonies on MEA spreading fast or very fast, reaching over 90 mm in one week (or 70 mm in some isolations from ascospores); cottony, 10-15 mm high, white or becoming orange when subiculum and perithecia are formed; reverse yellow or ochraceous in many asexual isolates. Odor absent. Aerial mycelium scanty. Conidiophores arising from aerial hyphae, hardly or not differentiated from these; 4-7 µm wide; branching irregular to verticillate. Conidiogenous cells by 2-5(-7) in a verticil; 30-65(-80) µm long, 3-5 µm wide at the base, attenuating to 2-3 µm at the tip; proliferating retrogressively; forming 1 conidiogenous locus. Conidiogenous locus proliferating retrogressively, percurrently, forming up to 50 conidia that are held in end-to-end chains. Conidia ellipsoidal to cylindrical or obovoid, equilateral, with a central basal hilum; (10-)12-17(-25) × (5-)6-8(-10) µm; hyaline; 1-septate, very rarely also 2-3-septate conidia observed. Thick-walled cells formed in terminal position on lateral branches or intercalarly on aerial or submerged hyphae; yellow or pale brown; with cells subglobose to globose, 12-20 µm in diam, held by 3-4; wall 1-3 µm thick, smooth.

Habitat:

Distribution. probably cosmopolitan, recorded from Northern America, Southern America (Cuba), Europe, Asia-temperate (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Siberia, China, Russian Far East, Eastern Asia), Australasia. Common in northern and southern temperate regions but rare in tropical regions.

Notes:

However, the authoritative online treatment of Hypomyces, for readers whose interest goes beyond figuring out what species of funky stuff is covering this or that mushroom, is the USDA's ( http://nt.ars-grin.gov/taxadescriptions/... ) website. he highly recommend the site; it contains extensive information on the genus. Sadly, however, the site is a nightmare to navigate. It "looks good," but it uses frames, coupled with more Javascript than ought to be legal. I/he would love to offer direct links to species pages at the site, but it isn't possible; you will need to navigate the Javascript yourself to get to the wonderful content [mushroomexpert ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hypomyces.... ) ]