Sclerophora pallida
Thallus: not developed.
Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: ascomata apothecia, mazaedial. Stalk 400-700 µm tall and 60-100 µm diam., pale yellow to yellow-brown when mature, darker brown when old, not pruinose, composed of infrequently branched parallel hyphae. Young ascomata yellow-pruinose, the pruina often degenerating by maturity when the ascomata appear pale greyish-brown with a pale yellowish-brown mazaedium, translucent when wet. Hymenium 250-300 µm diam., obovoid to lenticular, with the excipulum forming a distinct yellow- or white-pruinose collar surrounding the stalk at the base of the fertile head. Interascal tissue absent, but the asci and mazaedial mass are interspersed with minute dark yellow crystals. Asci 30-35 x 4-5 µm, cylindric-clavate, short-stalked, thin-walled and evanescent, without apical structures, 8-spored. Ascospores arranged partially uniseriately or biseriately, 7-8 µm diam., ± globose but rather variable in shape, hyaline (pale brown en masse), with an irregularly warted ornamentation. The ascospores are released well before maturity and can appear rather smaller and smoother-walled in young mazaedia.
Chemistry: granular crystals in mazaedium sometimes K+ purple-violet (with formation of larger crystals).
BLS map: here
Assessed as Vulnerable (C2 D1) by Woods & Coppins (2012). It is considered as Nationally Scarce and a former UK BAP species, and is listed under Section 41 of the NERC Act 2006.
Scattered throughout northern England and Scotland, from Derbyshire to Northumberland and Midlothian, and in various sites throughout the eastern and northern Highlands.
In dry bark crevices and on wood of deciduous trees.