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Ascobolus furfuraceus
Nomenclature
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Family: AscobolaceaeGenus: Ascobolus
SUMMARY
Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: stromata absent. Ascomata apothecia, 0.5-5 mm diam. and 0.4-0.8 mm high, solitary or gregarious, superficial, sessile, initially subglobose, then becoming hemispherical to discoid, yellowish-green or yellowish-brown, often becoming olive green, ochraceous or brownish; the outer surface furfuraceous, the margin often slightly dentate. Disk flat or slightly concave, dotted with the almost black protruding tips of ripe asci, finally often brownish or blackish-brown. Hymenium (120-) 150-200 (-220) µm thick, hypothecium 20-50 µm thick, of isodiametric, rounded cells 7-12 µm diam. Exciple near the margin 20-50 µm thick, broader near the base, composed of globose to oblong cells 10-50 (-90) x I0-30 (-60) µm in size, sometimes with some brownish, amorphous, intercellular pigment; the external zone usually roughened by protruding groups of globose to cylindrical cells. Interascal tissue of simple or branched paraphyses 2-4 µm diam., the apex usually hardly swollen, embedded in yellowish or yellowish-green gel. Asci (120-) 180-250 x (20-) 24-30 (-32) µm, clavate, tapering downwards into a rather short stalk, the apex rounded to ± truncate, the wall staining blue in iodine, 8-spored. Ascospores ± biseriate or obliquely uniseriate at maturity, (16-) 19-28 (-32) x (9-) 10-14 (-16) µm, ellipsoidal, at first hyaline, becoming purplish-brown at maturity, aseptate, ornamented with ± longitudinal, occasionally anastomosing furrows, covered in a mucous sheath which may break down at maturity.