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 Chlorovibrissea melanochlora
SynonymsVibrissea melanochlora
BiostatusOccurrence uncertain
Article: Beaton, G.W.; Weste, G. (1983). A new species of Vibrissea from North Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 21(3): 281-283 (http://www.rsnz.org/publish/abstracts.php).
Article: Beaton, G.W.; Weste, G. (1983). A new species of Vibrissea from North Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 21(3): 281-283 (http://www.rsnz.org/publish/abstracts.php).
Description: Ascomata superficial, solitary or several arising from a common mycelial pad, stipitate, the whole ascoma parsley green or darker, releasing plentiful dark green pigment into 2.5% KOH; head subglobose or lobed, up to 7 mm diam, totally covered with the hymenium except where the stem is inserted in an umbilicus; stalk up to 1 mm thick, cylindrical or slightly tapering downward, smooth but appearing finely roughened under a hand lens; the whole ascoma appears black when dried. Medullary excipulum of loosely interwoven, lightly pigmented, long celled hyphae to 6 µm diam, becoming more densely interwoven in the subhymenial layer and immersed in a gelatinous matrix. Flesh of stem of pigmented parallel hyphae with cells up to 60 x 8 µm, not clearly differentiated into two tissues on specimens examined, exterior thickly covered with flexuose, septate, obtuse, concolorous hairs up to 60 x 6 µm. Asci cylindrical or slightly clavate with a long slightly tapering stalk, with 8 spores in a fascicle, the small pore strongly blued with iodine, 180-200 x 8 µm. Ascospores filiform, slightly tapering downward, with numerous oil drops, at first continuous but becoming up to 9-septate, 100-115 x 1-5 µm. Paraphyses cylindrical with variably shaped clavate tips, 2 µm thick, tips to 7 µm, septate, branched from the bases, slightly longer than the asci.
Notes: Differs from V. tasmanica in the habitat, by the presence in all tissues of green pigment that is
readily soluble in KOH, in the retention of the pigment when dried or preserved in glycerol, in the
longer and thicker asci and ascospores and in the uniformly thicker tips of the paraphyses.
This species fruits in moss covered cracks in large, fallen, saturated eucalypt logs. It is a difficult
fungus to find with little more than the green fertile heads appearing above cracks in logs against a
mossy background.
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