Vesiculomyces citrinus

Vesiculomyces citrinus

 

This fungus was featured by Mike Hillman in the Bee-fly at the end of last year. It is a seldom recorded species, probably because it is encountered most in the

          

winter added to which it is a resupinate (a fruit body flattened on the substrate) which seem to attract less attention. It occurs on conifers and can be found on bark, the decaying trunk and the end grain. The visual appearance being strikingly different in each case. There are prominent blisters merging one with another on the exposed timber, smaller on the end grain. The margin on the trunk is defined by thin thread like fingers, the blisters are pale cream. The end

                                                                                                                            

grain’s smaller blisters are + sulphur-yellow to straw-yellow. The thread like margins are almost non-existent on the cross grain and bark fruit bodies, resulting in a clearly delineated margin. The spore print is white and the spores are sub-spherical, smooth, with a pronounced apiculus (a short projection at one end of a spore). One can be seen in yellow on the top spore in the image above. There is a single filamentous structure that constitutes the mycelium of the fungus.

Seen only twice and both times on Heath Warren with a 7 year gap.