Tulasnella pallida

Macquarie, ACT

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Identification history

Tulasnella pallida

11 Nov 2016

Heino

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Heino wrote:

12 Nov 2016

This fruit body appeared in a suburban garden on damp, well-rotted wood (either eucalypt or Acacia). After collecting and photographing this fungus I wrapped it in waxed paper, to take it to the herbarium the next morning, when I photographed it again. I'd taken in several fungi, separately wrapped in waxed paper, but all then placed in the one container. In Photo 2 I show Photo 1 with an added scale bar and, within the white rectangle, I've superimposed part of a photo taken the following morning. The stars indicate the corresponding points in the two views. The arrows point to some of the areas where the waxed paper had came into contact with the specimen, under pressure from other items in the container, when they moved a little during the journey. In some species with such thin fruit bodies, a little pressure readily compresses the fruit body. In Photo 3 I show some microscopic details. The red scale bar is valid only for the drawings. Basidia are labelled with a 1 (mature) or 2 (immature). The mature sterigmata show well but in each case the body of the basidium is collapsed. In the drawing, one of the sterigmata has an immature spore still attached. The spores (3) are fusiform (broader centrally and narrowing at the apices) and may exhibit a process called 'germination by repetition' (4). Here, a short prong grows out from a spore and produces a secondary spore. In effect the original spore is now functioning as a basidium from which a single sterigma is produced. At (5) I'm not sure whether the fresh spore has been produced by repetition or whether the pale reddish object is a collapsed sterigma, that has become detached from a basidium. At (6) you see a mix of spores. The spores and basidia are smooth and colourless, the colours in the photos being artefacts of staining or lighting. When fresh I noted the colour as pale grey but the dried herbarium specimen has a faint lilac tinge.

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