Käyttäjän mattbarrett havainnot

Uploaded on behalf of the collector, Kym Brennan

Small, fragile, 10cm tall. In leaf mould in heavy shade, lowland spring-fed monsoon forest, on drier part towards margin.

This is a normal gilled mushroom that has a very thin cap flesh, which splits radially (between the gills). Further drying lifts and twists the gill-segments into the flower shape in the image. The type specimen from Vanauatu had the same form on all fruitbodies, but the author was unsure whether this was an oddity, or the normal condition. The find of this Australian specimen shows that it is the norm, but it would be great to find young fruitbodies to understand exactly of the final form develops – at what point in development does it depart from a mushroom shape?

The species is Hausknechtia floriformis, a monotypic genus only described in 2020, with a single species described (by Anton Hausknecht) in 2003, previously only known from Vanuatu. I have been on the lookout for it, great to know it occurs in Australia too.

A link to the genus description: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11557-020-01606-3

A link to the original species description: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjwh767wJD0AhWQXisKHV56AnkQFnoECAgQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zobodat.at%2Fpdf%2FOestZPilz_12_0031-0040.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2rG4jlSDVwwBUmwAkpRYGM

Polypore attached by short lateral stipe. Identity confirmed as close to Pseudofavolus cucculatus by ITS sequence; although matching one Chinese sequence of P. cucullatus, is only 93% to many others, suggesting P. cucullatus might be a species complex.

Pileus upper surface gelatinised, minutely white hairy. Pores with orange setae only visible microscopically. This is a young form of Echinochaete maximipora resembling Favolus spathulatus, but its identity as Echinochaete maximipora confirmed microscopically and with ITS sequences. Older fruitbodies with more typical orange-rusty-setose caps were present in the same location - see separate obervation.

Annual. Stipitate-cupulate, on wood. Cup erect, 5-13 x 5-11 mm, pale yellow-brown to dark brown externally, internally fawn-cream to very pale brown, margin with moderately-dense pale hairs 1.0-2.0 mm long, tending to be arranged in linearly-aligned fasicles, each fascicle adhering and tending to create triangular structures; outer surface mostly smooth but some hairs present, especially toward the apex of the cup. Stipe cylindrical, 6-15 x 1.2 mm, pale yellowish brown to dark brown, minutely papillose and with occasional hairs, especially near the apex. Flesh of cup solid, thin, 0.5-0.7 mm thick, white to cream, with a dark brown layer below the outer surface; under LM in section the layer below excipulum gelatinised (not visible with hand lens). Asci hyaline, long, thick-walled, asymmetrically operculate near apex, IKI-. Paraphyses thin, hyaline, thin-walled, with many septa especially near apex, IKI-. Ascospores hyaline, long fusiform, 49x10 um, thick-walled, smooth, not obviously striate or ornamented at 400X, IKI-, with many oil drops sometimes coalesced when younger. On dead stick almost completely buried, initially appearing on leaf litter until unearthed.