Maroon ball sponge
| Maroon ball sponge | ||||||||||||
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Maroon ball sponge ( Camarops petersii ) |
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| Camarops petersii | ||||||||||||
| ( Berk. & MA Curtis ) Nannf. |
The chestnut ball sponge or chestnut ball mushroom ( Camarops petersii ) is a wood-dwelling fungus on old oaks from the Boliniaceae family .
features
Macroscopic features
The fruiting body forms a stroma several centimeters thick and up to 10 cm wide , which is surrounded by a spotty brownish peridia . This tears when ripe, exposing the shiny chestnut brown surface of the stroma. It is finely dotted by the many perithecia mouths. The perithecia are densely packed and in up to six layers one above the other. Accordingly, they have a long, often curved neck canal. The mushroom smells noticeably of burnt horn, the taste is unpleasantly pungent and sour. This is caused by a sticky liquid that is used to transport spores.
Microscopic features
The spores are smooth, dark olive, elliptical and 7.5 to 9 × 3.5 to 5.5 μm in size. They have two oil droplets and an apical germ pore. The asci are cylindrical-stalked. The spore-bearing part is 80 × 8 μm in size. The paraphyses are thread-like and hyaline with a few septa.
ecology
The chestnut ball sponge is a saprobiont inhabitant on dead trunks of old oaks . In autumn it is spore-ripe.
Occurrence and endangerment
The chestnut ball sponge is very rare and is listed in Germany as critically endangered. It occurs in Europe but also in North America.
literature
- E. Gerhardt: Mushrooms. Verlag BLV, Munich 2006, p. 544, ISBN 978-3-8354-0053-5
- YES Nannfeldt. 1972. Camarops Karst. (Sphariales - Boliniaceae). Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift 66: 335-376. online (PDF; 4.9 MB)
