Podoscyphaceae

Abstract

The sporophores of these fungi are either found growing in or on the wood they emerge from the soil growing from buried wood. These are usually thin and leathery in texture and of various shapes, most commonly these either look fan-like or have the appearance of a funnel. The fruit bodies, growing closely, have a tendency to grow into one another and often produce rosette-like fructifications. The margin of the pileus may be entire or delicately toothed, and sometimes appears as if it is cut into bands. The upper surface of the sporophore is either smooth or downy and almost every shade of brown, but in some species, the colour ranges from ochraceous-tawny to white, and in others the surface of the pileus is divided into a number of concentric zones of varying shades. The hymenial surface is usually of a pallid or cream colour. The well developed stipe is either covered with a dense felt-like mat of hyphae or minute bristles, and is frequently attached to the substratum by a conspicuous mycelial disc. Hyphal structure in most species is of two types: the generative hyphae, which are thin-walled, hyaline, branched, and with clamp-connections at the septa; and the skeletal hyphae which are thick-walled, hyaline, unbranched and without clamp-connections. The cuticle is usually absent in most species. The hymenium is thickened and possesses a number of long, thin-walled, undulating, hyaline structures known as gloeocystidia; these structures stain deeply with aniline blue in lactic acid, and usually have a swollen base and narrow apex.