Propolis betulae
Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: ascomata apothecia, 2-3 x 1.5-2.5 mm in size, irregularly shaped but mostly ± ellipsoidal, immersed in rotten wood, without a distinct opening mechanism and becoming exposed by breaking through or sloughing off the outer substratum layers, which are sometimes slightly blackened immediately around the hymenium. Disc white to cream, not strongly farinose, somewhat convex when fully hydrated, pale beige to grey in dried material. Interascal tissue composed of filiform paraphyses ca 1.5 μm diam. In a gelatinous matrix, with irregular narrower branches in the apical part, with a crystalline epithecial layer. Asci 150–180 × 23–29 μm, cylindrical to cylindric-clavate, short-stalked, fairly thin-walled, not fissitunicate, the apex obtuse and hardly attenuated and thickened, not staining in iodine, 8-spored. Ascospores arranged biseriately, (36-) 38-48 (-54) × 10-12.5 μm, broadly allantoid, the ends rounded, hyaline to pale yellow, aseptate, fairly thick-walled, smooth, with two large guttules, without a gelatinous sheath or appendages.
Similar to Propolis farinosa, but with much larger asci and ascospores, and a disc that is not strongly farinose.
In GBI, reported from unspecified coniferous wood; known elsewhere from wood of Betula and Pinus. Probably a saprotroph.
A single record from VC49 Caernarvon.