Image of Steccherinum bourdotii Saliba & A. David 1988

Description:

Habitat: At the side of a group of Pinus nigra trees, south oriented mountain slope, fairly sunny and relatively warm place, calcareous ground, partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, elevation 600 m (1.950 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. - Substratum: Dead stump of a cut down deciduous tree (possibly Ostrya carpinifolia) mostly still in bark and partly covered with mosses, also heavily infected with Trametes versicolor (as effuse-reflexed to pileate form), however fungus spread also to pieces of fallen off bark, herbaceous plant roots and old leaf petioles (as a resupinated form). - Comments: Subglobose to ovate and significantly larger spores (see spore measurement chart), smaller diameter pseudocystidia, conical and longer than 1 mm aculei (see Ref.:(2)) distinguish this observation from more frequent Steccherinum ochraceum well. All forms from pure resupinated to distinctly pileate present. Caps of pileate form zonate, up to 14 mm wide and 12 mm off the substrate, often confluent up to 2 mm thick, context thin, upper side beige-pink with some brown strips and green (algae?), with thin whitish margin. Hymenium aculei up to 1.5 mm long, mostly conical, ocher-pink (oac764); hymenium in resupinated form with white edge. Smell indistinctive on soil and rottenness. SP whitish. Spores smooth, subglobose to ovate, dimensions: 4.4 (SD = 0.3) x 3.7 (SD = 0.2) micr., Q = 1.21 (SD = 0.07), n = 30. Motic B2-211A, magnification 1.000 x, oil, in water. Pseudocystidia 5-7 micr. diameter. Measured spores and a comparison of spore dimensions of S. bourdotii and S. ochraceus. - S.bourdotii. Ref.: (1) G.J.Krieglsteiner (Hrsg.), Die Grosspilze Bade-Wrttembergs, Band 1, Ulmer (2000), p 327. (2) A.Bernicchia, S.P.Gorjon, Cortitiaceae s.i., Fungi Europaei Vol.12., Edizioni Candusso (2010), pp 624. (3) http://aphyllopower.blogspot.com/2008/06/steccherinum-bourdotii-rundsporiger.html - S.ochraceum. (1) G.J.Krieglsteiner (Hrsg.), Die Grosspilze Bade-Wrttembergs, Band 1, Ulmer (2000), p 327. (2) A.Bernicchia, S.P.Gorjon, Cortitiaceae s.i., Fungi Europaei Vol.12., Edizioni Candusso (2010), pp628. (3) J.Breitenbach, F.Kraenzlin, Eds., Fungi of Switzerland, Vol.1. Verlag Mykologia (1984).