Ok, this isn’t much of an observation, but the recent New Zealand obs., and the recent discussions of the unknown Mycena Observation #4649, reminded me of this one.
This is a tiny bright colored little guy, brought in by James Edmonds at the last BAMS ACCF, at Albion, CA. It was only about 3-4mm in diameter, and about 1.5-2cm long. Didn’t know much what to do with it, bright, and slightly waxy maybe, so we kinda put a name of Hygrocybe sp. on it. I took a photo, as I try to do, and later just put a number on it, and popped it in the drier. But since it was soo small, also all by itself, just didn’t know what to do about it, and mostly forgot about it.
But looking over the New Zealand and other Tropical observations (Ecuador maybe?), I keep seeing something like this, as perhaps a bright red Mycena.
But not sure, in the end don’t know. Haven’t seem much else like this little guy in California before or since. But thought I would toss it up here, as another possible tropical California siting, and see what people thought (or not)…
On Cow dung.
Fruitbodies max out at about 5.2 mm wide.
Spores are about 25-26 µm x 18-19 µm.
Second image shows a small pile of shiny black spores at the mouth of an emerging perithecium.
Penny is 3/4 inch diameter. young and firm, in grassland setting.
Each of these fruiting bodies is very very small -- only about 0.1-0.2mm wide. Shot with an extreme macro lens, focus stack of 142 photos. I am guessing on the ID based on reading in Ascomycetes of North America. Could also be a Basidiomycete, something like a Lachnella species?
Debbie Klein found this and brought it to me to do extreme macro photography in my home studio. The first photo is a focus stack of 142 images. The second is focus stacked from 54 images.
The second photo is a different part of the same piece of wood. Those fruiting bodies appear to be a little more mature. The third photo is a crop of the first photo to show more detail.
Pileipellis cells tightly packed upright, each with a strongly swollen apex.
Spores not dextrinoid, ellipsoid. Cheilocystidia not observed.
Michel Beeckman identified this as a species from subsection Atramentarii, close to C.sis krieglsteineri and C.sis erythrocephala
On well rotten wood with white cheese polypore close by
Unusually sulcate or striate margins. The older ones were drying out and the flesh was collapsing onto the gills.
Found under irrigated Redwood with hardwoods nearby.