Host: adult fly

Habitat: montane to high-montane, humid, secondary mountain forests

Ecoregion: Bolivian Yungas (NT0105)

Collectors: D. Newman, P. Kaishian, L. Deininger, D. Ettlinger & T. Padilla

Collection #: APA088

Comments: this was the largest of any “bamboosicle” I have ever witnessed in person, dry or fresh. I so wish I were the one to find it in the field, and could have therefore photographed it in situ, but stumbling upon it back in the lab was still a pure delight. the final image shows some last-minute shots of the largest fruiting body — which had the heft and overall gestalt of a chicken pot pie — with my hand an a coin for scale, respectively. this species’ size, locality, and truly shelf-like growth habit all make the ID unmistakable as A. polyporoides. also note the typically long, filiform ascospores ejecting against the black background in the close-up shots.

Originally posted to Mushroom Observer on Apr. 29, 2019.

Peridium of immature fruitbodies staining stronlgy purple, long expansive rhizomorphs present, odor was mild, becoming foetid throughout the day.
Fruits 1.2-2.5 cm. fruiting around rotten Ohia, M. polymorpha, with Strawberry guava close by.

Día 21 // Day 21
3 individuos // 3 individuals

Relacionado con // Related to:
www.inaturalist.org/observations/2413526
www.inaturalist.org/observations/2427215
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2441395
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2446906
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2456420
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2462895
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2468145

Asci IKI+, croziers, 210-260 x 22-26µm
Spores hyaline, mostly biguttulate, ellipsoid with tapered ends, 10.5-11.8 x 4.4-5µm

Duplicate of https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/179274112

Collected for the 2023 Purchase Knob AscoBlitz

Growing out of a cut hardwood stump. A False puffball (slime mold) was also growing on the same stump. The young specimens of X. polymorpha were grayish bluish finger-like fruit bodies. This is the asexual form of the fungus, i.e., the anamorph. The gray powdery substance on these structures are asexual spores, conidia. The sexual form of the fungus, the teleomorph, was also found nearby. They were black fruit bodies and sort of reminded me of Apiosporina morbosa (Black knot). I sliced one open to reveal the white interior and a black outer wall. This black outer wall consists of perithecia (flask like structures), which contain the asci that release the sexual ascospores via tiny openings called ostioles.