Sporophagomyces
chrysostomus
Sporophagomyces chrysostomus
[Hypomyces chrysostomus]
- Name
- [golden-mouthed spore-eating fungus]
- Etymology
- Epithet = golden-mouthed. Genus = spore-eating-fungus.
- Fruitbody
- A feathery and radiating matt of mycelium attached to underside of bracket. Color whitish becoming brown from trapped spores. See references below for description of perithecia and microscopic characters.
- Similar species
- The other two species of Sporophagomyces are not recorded in the USA. Rogerson and Samuels (1993) has a key to Hypomyces on polypores.
- Ecology
- An odd parasite that apparently traps and digests the spores of its host. In the Midwest it is recorded on Ganoderma applanatum and
Ganoderma lipsiense (Batsch) G.F. Atk.
- Phenology
- American collections are from August to November.
- Biogeography
- Found in north-eastern North America. Widely distributed elsewhere. Published and online reports include: Belarus, Belize, Brazil, Canada (Quebec), Colombia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yugoslavia.
- Chicago Region status
- Status here not really known. It is hidden on the under side of Ganoderma. When we started looking for it in October of 2015 we found it during two out of three forays. The only known historic collection for Chicago Region is by E. T. Harper & S. A. Harper 2149 from Riverside, Cook County, November 1902. There is one other collection for Illinois (Champaign County, split among three herbaria), one for Indiana (Fountain County), and seven for Wisconsin (Fond du Lac, Kenosha, La Fayette, Ozaukee, and Waukesha Counties).
- Specimens examined
- The Harper 2149 specimen (from 1902), which is quite a large amount of material, was identified as Thelephora dendroidea. After consultation with Karen Nakasone in 2008, Patrick annotated the specimen to be Hypomyces chrysostomus. The recent collections are Jim Steffan s.n., 2008 Oct 8, Mary Mix McDonald Woods, Chicago Botanic Garden, Cook County; P. R. Leacock 12784, 2015 Oct 18, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, DuPage County.
Taxon Details and Links
- Nomenclature
-
- Sporophagomyces chrysostomus Canadian Journal of Botany 77 (12): 1765 (1999) ,
- ≡ Basionym: Hypomyces chrysostomus Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 14: 113 (1875) ,
- ≡ Peckiella chrysostoma Sylloge Fungorum 9: 944 (1891) ,
- ≡ Hypolyssus chrysostomus Revisio generum plantarum 3: 488 (1898) ,
- = Hypomyces porotheliiformis Annal. Mycol.: 326 (1938) ,
- Type
- Holotype. CEYLON. Central Province, December 1868, n. 1121 (K, herb. Berkeley).
- Taxonomy
- The anamorph name is Acremonium lindtneri (Kirschstein) Samuels & Rogerson 1993 [Septocylindrium lindtneri Kirschstein 1936, Moeszia lindtneri (Kirschstein) G. Arnold 1970]. Some old collections in herbaria were detached from the host. It has been called Thelephora dendritica Berkeley & Curtis (Lloyd, 1912) and Sebacina dendroidea (Lloyd 1915).
- Description links
- The species is discussed in M. Beug, A. E. Bessette, A. R. Bessette. 2014. Ascomycete Fungi of North America: A Mushroom Reference Guide. Google Books.
- Related links
- See an early discussion on this odd fungus, thought at the time to be a Sebacina (basidiomycete): C. G. Lloyd. 1915. Sebacina dendroidea. Mycological Notes 39. pp. 538-540 [Google Books]. See also page 583 where Lloyd prints (in French) the idea by Rev. Bourdot that the growth is not a separate species but rather an extension of the Fomes (Ganoderma).
- Põldmaa, K., E. Larsson, U. Köljalg. 1999. Phylogenetic relationships in Hypomyces and allied genera, with emphasis on species growing on wood-decaying homobasidiomycetes. Canadian Journal of Botany 77(12):1756-1768. DOI: 10.1139/b99-148
- Rogerson, C. T., and G. J. Samuels. 1993. Polyporicolous Species of Hypomyces. Mycologia 85(2): 231-272. DOI: 10.2307/3760461
- Hypomyces chrysostomus Berk. & Broome, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 14(no. 74): 113 (1873) [1875] Page Image for Protologue
- Records online
- iNaturalist
- Mushroom Observer
- MycoPortal
- Taxon links
- 460797 Sporophagomyces chrysostomus
- MycoBank
- Index Fungorum and Species Fungorum