Chlorogaster dipterocarpi

Chlorogaster dipterocarpi Læssøe & Jalink 2004, in Læssøe & Jalink, Persoonia, 18(3), 421 (2004).

Diagnosis: Gasterocarps (Colour plate 3) 45-60 mm high, pyriform with a broad head and a rather slender pseudostipe, epigeous except for the lower 5 to 10 mm of the pseudostipe which is immersed in the soil, at first entirely dark green (K. & W. 30F5) and covered all over with dehiscent, truncate to conical angular warts up to 1.5 mm long that leave a reticulate pattern (particularly on the head) of slightly angular to almost round scars surrounded by low warts or ridges (reminding of Lycoperdon perlatum), when mature with a pale green(K. & W. 30B5) peristome. Head up to 28 mm across and 10 mm high. Peristome in young specimens covered with the exoperidium and invisible, at maturity well demarcated, circular, flat, fimbriate, pale green, 4-5 mm in diameter. Pseudostipe 35-50 mm high (higher in material not collected) and 5-6 mm thick to 8 mm immediately below head, base subbulbous to somewhat tapering, rhizoids not observed. Gleba when submature dark grey, non-gelatinous, with white veins and very firm, later more fluffy and dull olive (Munsell 2.5 Y 6/4). Gleba attached to the endoperidium. Exoperidium in section dark olive green; endoperidium vivid yellow green (c. K. &W. 30B7), firm, 1.5 mm thick, slightly thinner near the apex. Tissue in the pseudostipe firm, yellow green (concolorous with the endoperidium), near the base darker and more olive green (like the exoperidium). Smell absent. Taste not tested. Spores (13.5-) 14.0-17.5(-23.5) pm (excl. ornamentation), (18.0—)19.5-24.5(-28.5) pm (inch ornamentation), Q = 1.00-1,03(-l. 18), globose, some subglobose, dark brown, not congophilous nor cyanophilous, when very young surrounded by solid wide sheath. Ornamentation consisting of prominent straight to undulating or slightly curved crests or spines, (2.8-)4.3-6.6(-9.0) pm high. As observed with SEM the ornamentation appears highly complex with more or less distortedplates (Figure1 d), in some cases showing almost a reticulate ornamentation. Some spores show a short conical appendix, which is presumably an apiculus (Figure 1c). No trophocysts could be observed but the ornamentation of many (submature) spores is imbedded in amorphous, congophilous and cyanophilous matter. Paracapillitium (Figure 2) fairly elastic, 3.0-5.5pm wide, thin-walled (0.1-0.2 pm), sparsely branched, hyaline, with adhering, slightly yellowish amorphous.

Index Fungorum Number: IF369490

Figure 1. Chlorogaster dipterocarpi. a-c. Basidiospores as observed with SEM. d. Detail of the spore ornamentation (with SEM). Scale bars = 10 μm. (Photos: Læssøe & Jalink 2004)

Figure 2. Chlorogaster dipterocarpi. Paracapillitium. Scale bar = 20 μm.(Photo: Læssøe & Jalink 2004)