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 Hymenochaete cruenta
SynonymsHymenochaete mougeotii
Hymenochaete sphaericola
Thelephora cruenta
Thelephora mougeotii
BiostatusPresent in region - Indigenous. Non endemic
Article: Cunningham, G.H. (1963). The Thelephoraceae of Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bulletin 145: 359 p. Wellington:.
Description: Hymenochaete resupinate, annual or biennial, membranous,
adherent, effused, at first in the form of small orbicular colonies to 5 mm
diameter, merging to form linear areas 10-35 x 2-5 cm; hymenial surface when
fresh India-red with a brighter periphery, becoming reddish-purple or
testaceous, even or tuberculate, at length deeply irregularly creviced; margin
thinning out, adherent, bright red with a narrow white or tinted fibrillose
edge. Context testaceous or umber, 150-400 µm thick, of parallel hyphae loosely
arranged, cortex narrow, with or without abhymenial hairs; skeletal hyphae 3-4
µm diameter, walls 0.5 µm thick, reddish-brown, freely branched, sometimes
crystal encrusted; generative hyphae 2-2.5 µm diameter, walls 0.25 µm thick,
hyaline. Setal layer 100-150 µm deep, in old specimens to 300 µm, of 3-5
irregular overlapping rows of setae and freely branched hyphae; setae narrowly
fusiform, with acuminate apices, some projecting to 50 p, 60-95 x 8-12 µm, walls
verruculose, reddish-brown, many tinted only, lumena at first broad, becoming
narrow. Hymenial layer to 30 µm deep, a dense palisade of basidia, paraphyses,
and paraphysate hyphae. Basidia subclavate, 16-22 x 3.5-4 µm, bearing 4 spores;
sterigmata arcuate, slender, to 6 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, 12-18 x 3.5-4
µm. Paraphysate hyphae projecting, dendriform, coloured or hyaline. Spores
suballantoid, apiculate, 6-8 x 3-3.5 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.1 µm thick.
Habitat: HABITAT: Bark and decorticated wood of dead branches
and stems associated with a white rot.
Distribution: DISTRIBUTION: Europe, Great Britain, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand.
Notes: Fresh specimens may be recognised readily by the closely adherent
resupinate fructifications with the hymenial surface coloured scarlet or
India-red, periphery bright red, and margin white and fibrillose. At first
plants are small and orbicular; soon they merge to form irregular linear areas
5-10 cm long, sometimes extending to 35 cm. Sections through actively growing
plants show them to be composed of a narrow setal layer of two or three
overlapping rows of setae embedded among erect hyphae freely branched, and a
context of parallel hyphae bordered by a coloured cortex of intertwined cemented
hyphae which may or may not bear abhymenial hairs. In older specimens the setal
layer may occupy the greater part of the context, and be composed of as many as
15 rows of setae irregularly distributed. Numerous dendriform paraphysate hyphae
project above the hymenial surface especially in the periphery of actively
growing plants. They may be coloured or hyaline, are formed from skeletal
hyphae, and tend to disappear as plants age. In the context skeletal hyphae are
scantily branched, but in the setal layer become freely so, almost dendriform.
Spores, usually suballantoid, may be cylindrical with rounded ends.
Collections listed differ from typical European plants in several
particulars. They are more deeply coloured, with purple shades rather than
scarlet, margins are less brightly coloured, more closely attached to the
substratum, and abhymenial hairs are usually scantily developed save in young
specimens. In microfeatures they are similar, even to the dendriform paraphysate
hyphae. The distribution given is based on examination of specimens in Kew
herbarium and received from correspondents.
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