Tolypocladium ophioglossoides |
This is a small mushroom; longest here is 4 cm (about 1.5 inches), said to reach a length of up to 8 cm. Very tough consistency but pliable. Several usually found growing in one area; often found in mossy areas, probably due to ease of visibility. The dark red-brown head of this mushroom is its fertile surface, the stroma, producing and ejecting spores. |
See IMA FUNGUS |
The first image above shows a single ascus which contains eight ascospores lying side-by-side; as can be seen in the second image showing a broken ascus. These long (150-200 microns) and thin (2 microns)) ascospores are multiseptate (divided many times) and produce 128 part-spores, each a viable spore. Last image is of disarticulated part-spores which measure 2.5-3.5 x 1.5-2 microns. That's small! |
See also MushroomExpert.Com and Tom Volk's Fungi |
Multiples of eight in Cordyceps ascospores Mycological Research, Volume 106, p.2-3 (2002) available at Cordyceps.us |
With age, Tolypocladium ophioglossoides will become completely black; the above example was found in November attached to a cluster of Elaphomyces granulatus. |
If you dig very carefully you will find Tolypocladium ophioglossoides attached to its host, the deer truffle, by a gold-colored thread of mycelium. |
Unraveled ascospores. |
Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides and Cordyceps ophioglossoides are former names, all refer to the same mushroom - Tolypocladium ophioglossoides. |