| Actual Image
Cyttaria gunnii (36)
LordPotty
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1449 W: 146 N: 3764]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (12035) | This is an odd looking fungi that can be found growing on the sides of beech trees in damp Nothofagus forests.
I found this one on the ground on the Croesus track, which crosses the Paparoa Range between Blackball and Barrytown.
It develops in rather a strange way, quite unlike any other fungi.
The following information about the species is from the Landcare Research website:
Description: Stromata solitary or in dense clusters, up to 2 cm in diameter, pear-shaped, smooth and dry but becoming slimy if wetted, fawn or tan above, light coloured below, bright yellow when mature except for a sterile base which remains white. Hollow at maturity, internal fibres white. Apothecia very numerous, up to 200, bright yellow.
Papillae small, scattered between apothecia, appearing as white flecks on young stroma, arising as minute elevations within shallow depressions, not raised above the surface of the stroma. Pycnidia absent. Asci 145-165 x 14 µm, ascospores sub-globose 12-12.5 x 6.5-12 µ, dark coloured, spore print black. Paraphyses as long as asci, 2 µ wide, septate, branched, swollen at ends.
Habitat: An obligate parasite forming globose galls on Nothofagus menziesii (Hook f.) Oerst., in New Zealand and Nothofagus cunninghamii (Hook. f.) Oerst., in Tasmania and Victoria. Range in New Zealand as for host.
Notes:
The sporophores of this species first appear at the time when the buds of the host are beginning to swell; in Southland, in 1946, when most of the investigation was carried out, this occurred during the first week of September. Spore shedding starts early in October and reaches a peak towards the end of November. The first fructifications seen were growing from small twigs showing, little or no sign of gall formation; large galls produce fructifications later.
The galls are small in proportion to the diameter of the branch or stem, as compared with those of C. nigra; they usually occupy about two-thirds of the circumference of the branch and are flattened slightly at the point of origin. When a branch is completely girdled the upper part may die, in which case the death of the gall may follow. In contrast to C. nigra, galls on the main stem take the. form of rope-like encircling bands.. for example one sapling of 11 in d.b.h. had three galls, at 3ft, 4ft 2in. and 5ft 6in from the ground. The lowest was 2 in high and 12 in in circumference, leaving 1 in of bark unaffected, the middle gall was 12 in high and 10 in in circumference, and the highest was 1 1/2 in high and 11 in in circumference. The last two galls cornpletely encircled the stem. See Plate 12 C.
The surface of the gall appears smooth, but if the bark is removed the wood is found to be very uneven, being contorted and produced into sharp spines, the tips of which split into fibres which penetrate through the bark. It is from these points that the stromata develop. The scar left on the gall when the fructification falls is a white circular spot, with, in many cases, the remains of the central tube of fibres which pulls out of the stroma.
Thanks for looking,
Steve |
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