Peziza-varia-group_8

Description:

Peziza varia group (Hedw.) Fr. EN: Layered Cup group, DE: Riesenbecherling, Wachsbecherling, Vernderlicher Becherling gruppeSlo.: skupina raznoline sklediceHabitat.Dat.: Nov. 26. 2018Lat.: 46.360270 Long.: 13.703867Code: Bot_1165/2018_DSC4314Habitat: trail edge; wood edge (Fagus sylvatica, Fraxinus ornus, Ostrya carpinifolia, Picea abies); slightly inclined mountain slope, northeast aspect; calcareous, colluvial, skeletal ground with many calcareous rocks; mostly shady place; partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies; average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevation 585 m (1.910 feet), alpine phytogeographical region.Substratum: moos covered compact, calcareous rock with a thin layer of humus beneath the moss.Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soa and Trenta, right bank of river Soa, next to the trail from Skokar farm house, Trenta 2 to Trenta 2b cottage, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC.Comments: This find remains only vaguely determined. All observed traits do not fit well to any Peziza species description I was able to find. The best fit seems to be Peziza varia group (Ref.1). The fruit body shows (considered typical) five distinct layers in cross section. Asci and paraphyses fit dimensionally well to Peziza varia, however, paraphyses' shape is not moniliform as described in most sources including Breitenbach (Ref. 6). The habit seems only marginally similar to pictures found in the literature (with eventual exception in Ref. 9). Measured spores are consistently too narrow. They exhibit two distinct oil drops when still in asci (observed slightly out of microscope focus). This contradicts to most descriptions in the literature, an exception being Ref.: 5. Also Ref.: 6 states that with several Peziza species oil drops disappear, when the spores become mature and are released from asci. Substratum is very strange. It should be wood/roots according to most sources, but there was no wood or roots of reasonable size in the vicinity of this fruit body. Alternativelyy Peziza cerea (Sowerby) Gilled, also belonging to this group, was consider. Hohmeyer's key in Ref. 8 seems conform to this determination. Peziza cerea has slightly narrower spores than Peziza varia, hence it somewhat better, but not fully, fits to this find. It doesn't have moniliform paraphyses. Also: Ref. 3. states as (one of possible) substratum small wood debris and Ref. 6. states (among other options) organic debris. Both could eventually be present under the moss layer where the fruit body was growing. But, for Peziza cerea the edge of the fruit body should be entire according to Medardi Ref.: 3., which is not the case in this find. But, the upper thoughts may be already superfluous. Molecular research (Ref.: 2) in 2002 apparently demonstrated no justification for recognizing more than one species in the Peziza varia complex. The study included 27 specimens that have been referred to under the names Peziza cerea, Peziza micropus and Peziza repanda from an array of substrates. Morphological characters used to delimit species within this complex, such as color variation of the apothecia, presence or absence of a stipe, stratified or non-stratified medullary exciple and its layers, and moniliform vs. filiform paraphyses were not correlated with the subgroups supported by ITS analyses and appeared to be plastic. Therefore, Peziza cerea, Peziza repanda and Peziza micropus are placed in synonymy with Peziza varia. I don't know to what degree these results are generally accepted today. But they do not reflect (yet?) in Index Fungorum and MycoBank. If this research is accepted, then this find could be named Peziza varia (Hedw.: Fr.) Fr. Fruit body dimensions 4 by 3.5 cm and 3 cm tall; in the field the fruit body was almost the same color inside and outside; after two days, in half dry state, the outer surface became grayish and much lighter than the inner, while the inner surface became much darker brown; taste indistinctive, slightly mushroomy; smell almost none, eventually slightly on rotten leaves, earth; hymenium near the edge of fruit body consisted of almost only paraphyses with some not yet mature asci and in the center of the sporocarp almost only asci with very few paraphyses were present; SP very faint, beige ochre (?). Spores smooth, some may be slightly punctuated (barely visible with my equipment at magnification 1000x - not visible on the published spore picture). Spores taken by soft brush from the center of the fruit body. Spore dimensions: (14.2) 14.5 - 15.9 (16.3) (7) 7.3 - 8 (8.2) m; Q = (1.8) 1.9 - 2.2 (2.3); N = 28; Me = 15.2 7.6 m; Qe = 2. Asci: (239) 243 - 297 (298) (11.5) 13.7 - 16.6 (20.2) m; Q = (11.9) 14.6 - 21.7 (23.5); N = 14; Me = 269 14.7 m; Qe = 18.7. Paraphyses dimensions: diameter: (3.9) 3.93 - 4.7 (5) m; Me = 4.3 m; diameter at the tip: (5.5) 6 - 7.3 (7.9); Me = 6.6 m. Olympus CH20, NEA 100x/1.25, magnification 1.000 x, oil (spores, terminal portion of asci); NEA 40x/0.65, magnification 400x (asci, excipulum, hymenium, paraphyses, outer surface) and NEA 10x/0.25, magnification 100x (asci), in water, fresh material. AmScope MA500 digital camera.Herbarium: Mycotheca and Herbarium of Slovenian Forestry Institute, Vena pot 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Index Herbariorum acronym LJFRef.: (1) Personal communication with Prof. dr. Dragia Savi, University of Ni, Faculty of Technology, Serbia and Mr. Bojan Rot, www. gobenabovskem.si.(2) K. Hansen, T. Laessoe, D. H. Pfister, Phylogenetic diversity in the core group of Peziza inferred from ITS sequences and morphology, Mycol. Res. 106 (8) (2002), p 879902; available at: www.ascofrance.com/uploads/forum_file/Peziza-s.str.-Mycol... (accessed Jan. 22. 2019) (3) G. Medardi, Atlante fotografico de gli Ascomiceti d'Italia, AMB, (2006), p 209, (4) G. Medardi, www.yumpu.com/es/document/read/10098062/peziza-cerea-sowe... (5) H.O. Baral & O. Baral, G. Marson, In vivo veritas (Pezizaceae), CD, 2nd edition (2003). (6) J. Breitenbach, F. Kraenzlin, Eds., Fungi of Switzerland, Vol.1., Verlag Mykologia (1984), p 78. (7) M. W. Beug, A.E. Bessette, A.R. Bessette, Ascomycete Fungi of North America, Uni.of Texas Press, Austin (2014), p 221. (8) H. Hohmeyer, Ein Schlussel zu den europaischen Arten der gatung Peziza L., Zeitschrift fur Mykologie (1986), p 161; available at: www.dgfm-ev.de/publikationen/artikelarchiv/ein-schluessel... (P. cerea) (9) www.biolib.cz/en/image/id156948/ (accessed Jan.23. 2019)