Piceomphale bulgarioides
Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: ascomata apothecia, 3-10 mm diam., often in large clusters, superficial on the substratum, cupulate to saucer-shaped, the margin slightly raised; disc olive to blackish brown, exciple slightly paler, dull and smooth. Exciple composed of an outer layer 100_170 µm thick of periclinally arranged mid brown thick-walled angular to angular-globose, and an inner layer of thick-walled intertwined hyphae surrounded by ± melanized amorphous material; subhymanium thin, almost hyaline. Hymenium hyaline, 100-120 µm thick. Interascal tissue of thin-walled paraphyses 3-4 µm diam., occasionally branched near the base, the apices hardly swollen and not pigmented. Asci 80-95 x 6-7 µm, cylindrical, fairly thick-walled but not fissitunicate, the apex obtuse, distinctly thickened with a narrow cylindrical pore that blues in iodine, 8-spored. Ascospores arranged uniseriately, 10.5-12.2 x (4-) 4.5-5 µm, ellipsoidal to fusiform-ellipsoidal or occasionally slightly rhomboid, sometimes slightly inaequilateral, thin-walled, aseptate, hyaline, smooth, without an epispore or gelatinous sheath.
Not formally assessed, currently only one confirmed British record. P. bulgarioides appears confined to the non-native tree Picea abies, but could have spread naturally onto the host from Scandinavia.
Antinoa (Phialea) strobilina appears very similar but has a more strongly malanized stalk, an outer exciple composed of hyphal tissue, and narrower ascospores 8-10 x 1.5-2 µm in size. Dennis (1956) assumed that P. bulgarioides was a synonym of this species.
On dead fallen cones of Picea abies.
Known from a single site in VC96 E Inverness.