An unusual form of Trechispora vaga

During an excursion of the Dutch Mycological Society to the Bois de Resteigne (prov. Namur, Belgium) in 1977, a curious lignicolous clavate fungus was found growing out of a resupinate basidiocarp. Since the clavate body had the same colour as the resupinate part, a possible relationship between the two parts was supposed but seemed highly improbable since no such large structures connected with a thin resupinate basidiocarp are known up to now. The resupinate part showed a yellowish-brownish colour, stained slightly reddish in a diluted solution of KOH and was easily identified as Trechispora vaga (Fr.) Liberta, owing to its monomitic hyphal system, inflated and clamped hyphae, small four-spored basidia which often develop a lateral, basal outgrowth (pleurobasidia), and small, hyaline, inamyloid spores densely covered with warts. The clavate body was hanging out of the centre of the resupinate part and was up to 12 cm long and 9 cm wide. The point of attachement was rather narrow, ranging from a few millimeters in the small body to a few centimeters in the larger one. The surface was yellowish and showed at the marginal parts small, cup-shaped depressions caused by guttation drops. A longitudinal section reveals a yellowish context with small, darker spots (much more pronounced in dried condition) and a distinct concentrical zonation, probably demonstrating the successive growth of the fungus. The whole clavate body is sterile and shows no traces of hymenial formation or conidium production. The hyphal structure is monomitic and shows the same cylindrical, partly inflated hyphae which deviate in no way from the hyphae of the underlying perfect state. There is no doubt that the sterile, clavate structures belong to Trechispora vaga, with the resupinate basidiocarp of which they were intimately connected.