Microglossum rufescens  

A medium club-shaped earthtongue initially olive green or pinkish, becoming ochre olive to ochre brown. The hymenium occupying less than the upper half of the ascocarp. A species of sandy or grassy environments.

Ascocarps (18-) 30-60 (-70) mm high, clavate (club-shaped), stipitate (with stipe). Hymenium (surface home to spore-bearing structures) (8-) 15-20 (-30) × 3-7 (-10) mm, compressed, distinct, dry, glabrous (smooth and hairless), initially olive green or pinkish, becoming ochre olive to ochre brown, browning and blackening when dried. Hymenium occupying less than the upper half of the ascocarp. Hymenium and stipe well differentiated but without a vallecula (clear collar separating the upper and lower parts). Stipe 10-40 x 2-4 (-6) mm, sub-cylindrical, glabrous, white to mother-of-pearl, a little caramel-coloured at the top, whitish in the centre. Asci (60-) 90-105 (-125) x (6-) 8-10 μm, 8-spored, cylindrical to clavate (club-shaped), uniseriate (arranged in a single row), the pore bluing in Melzer’s reagent. Ascospores: 12-16 x 3-4 (-5) μm, fusiform, a little flattened on one surface, with multiple lipid bodies, non-septate. Paraphyses filiform, colourless, simple or divided at the base. 1.5-2.5 μm wide, no or slightly thickened at the top.

Adapted and combined from: - Bon (1970). "Flore de la Zone Maritime Picarde” Bulletin de la Société mycologique de France: 86 (1), 206;

- Grelet (1946). "Les Discomycetes de France” Revue Mycologique, Paris: 11, 97.

- & Moingeon et al. (2004). "Contributions à l’étude des Geoglossaceae à spores hyalines." Miscellanea Mycologica 80-81.