Daldinia grandis Child

TELEOMORPH | CULTURES AND ANAMORPH | SPECIMENS EXAMINED | NOTES

TELEOMORPH

Daldinia grandis Child, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 19: 456. 1932.

= Daldinia concentrica (Bolton: Fr.) Ces. & De Not. f. californica C. G. Lloyd, Mycol. Writings 5, Large Pyrenomycetes: 23. 1919.

Stromata depressed-spherical to hemispherical, sessile or nearly so, solitary, infrequently aggregated or confluent, with inconspicuous to conspicuous perithecial mounds, 2.5-8 cm diam x 1.5-5.5 cm high; surface brown vinaceous (84), blackened and varnished in age; dull reddish brown granules immediately beneath surface, with KOH-extractable pigments livid purple (81), dark livid (80), or without apparent KOH-extractable pigments; the tissue between perithecia brown, pithy to woody; the tissue below the perithecial layer composed of alternating zones, the darker zones dark brown, pithy to woody, 0.3-0.8 mm thick, the lighter zones gray, grayish brown to brown, gelatinous when fresh but very hard when dry, becoming pithy to woody, sometimes with locules, persistent, 0.8-2 mm thick.

Perithecia tubular, 0.3-0.5 mm diam x 0.8-1.5 mm high.

Ostioles slightly papillate.

Asci 220-250 mm total length x 10-13 mm broad, the spore-bearing part 90-120 mm long, the stipe 100-150 mm long, with apical ring bluing in Melzer's iodine reagent, discoid, 1-1.5 mm high x 4.5-5 mm broad.

Ascospores dark brown, unicellular, ellipsoid to cylindrical, highly variable, inequilateral, slightly inequilateral to equilateral, with broadly to narrowly rounded ends sometimes pinched, 14-22 (-25.5) x 7-11 mm, with straight germ slit spore-length on more convex side; perispore indehiscent in 10% KOH; epispore smooth.