Ascocoryne sarcoides

Description

Ascocoryne sarcoides is a species of fungus in the family Helotiaceae. It is a beautiful mushroom that looks like a jelly or a cup, depending on which stage of its life cycle you find it. In its asexual, "anamorphic" stage, it produces cloned conidia (asexual spores) and looks like purple globs of jelly.

Distributed widely in North America, Europe, and Asia. It is a saprobic fungus and grows in clusters on the trunks and branches of a variety of dead woods. Other collection sites include Australia, Chile, China, Cuba, Iceland, Korea, and Taiwan. In Hawaii, it grows on trunks of fallen Cibotium and Aleurites trees.

A. sarcoides contains the antibiotic compound ascocorynin, shown in the laboratory to inhibit the growth of several Gram-positive bacteria.

In 2008, an isolate of A. sarcoides was observed to produce a series of volatiles including 6 to 9 carbon alcohols, ketones and alkanes. This mixture was called "Mycodiesel" because of its similarity to some existing fuel mixtures. The researchers have suggested that this, combined with its ability to digest cellulose, makes it a potential source of biofuel. The isolate was originally identified at Gliocladium roseum but its taxonomy was later revised to Ascococoryne sarcoides.

Common names: Jelly Drops, Purple Jellydisc, Čihovitka Masová (Czech Republic), Fleischroter Gallertbecher (German), Paarse knoopzwam (Netherlands).

Mushroom Identification

1. Fruiting Body

   Anamorphic stage initially lumpy and irregular, becoming more or less club-shaped, gelatinous, lavender to purple or wine red, forming brain-like masses that can stretch up to 20 cm across; teleomorphic stage cup-like to disc-like, gelatinous, purple and more or less bald on the upper surface, paler and bald or finely fuzzy on the undersurface, with or without a poorly defined stem-like structure; odorless.

2. Flesh

   The flesh is rubbery-gelatinous, pinkish-purple, without pronounced smell and taste.

3. Habitat

   Saprobic on the well-decayed wood of hardwoods; growing gregariously or clustered; fall and winter. Like beech, very rarely also on other fungi such as honey fungi, fog caps, mosses, lichens, or even on bare ground, stones, secondary decomposers. Widely distributed in North America.

4. Microscopic Features

   Spores 13-21 x 3.5-5 µ; smooth; fusiform; biguttulate at first, developing more guttules and, eventually, a septum (rarely more than one septum); rarely with lemon-shaped conidia developing from the spore (and, when conidia develop, coalescing in chains). Asci eight-spored, with spores usually packed in four rows of two; up to 130 x 10 µ; extreme apices blue in Melzer's reagent. Paraphyses filiform, with subclavate or merely rounded apices 1-2 µ wide.

5. Spore Print

   Whitish.

Look-Alikes

1. Ascocoryne cylichnium

   Very similar in appearance and can only be differentiated by the size of a spore.

2. Tremella foliacea and Auricularia auricula

   Easily distinguished from A. sarcoides by the presence of basidia (rather than asci).

Ascocoryne sarcoides Bioactive Compounds

Ascocoryne sarcoides have been shown to contain a terphenylquinone named ascocorynin - a chemical derivative of the compound benzoquinone. This pigment, when in alkaline solution, turns a dark violet, similar in color to the fruit bodies of the fungus.

Ascocorynin has moderate antibiotic activity, and was shown in laboratory tests to inhibit the growth of several Gram-positive bacteria, including the widely distributed food spoilage organism Bacillus stearothermophilus; however, it does not affect the growth on Gram-negative bacteria, nor does it have any anti-fungal activity.

History

In 1781 Dutch naturalist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin described this species and named it Lichen sarcoides.

In 1967 Canadian mycologist James Walton Groves (1906 - 1970) and D E Wilson transferred it to the genus Ascocoryne with the new scientific name Ascocoryne sarcoides.

The genus name Coryne was first used in 1851 by Bonorden, who proposed Coryne sarcoides for the imperfect state; in 1865 the Tulasne brothers (Charles and Louis René) used Coryne to refer to both the perfect and imperfect forms. It was designated the type species for the genus in a 1931 publication by Clements and Shear.

The species name is derived from the Greek sarkodes (fleshy).

Synonyms and Varieties

• Acrospermum dubium Pers.

• Acrospermum galeatum (Holmsk.) Pers.

• Bulgaria sarcoides (Jacq.) Fr., 1822

• Clavaria galeata Holmsk.

• Coryne dubia (Pers.) Gray

• Coryne sarcoides (Jacq.) Tul. & C. Tul.

• Helotium galeatum (Holmsk.) Pers.

• Helvella sarcoides (Jacq.) Dicks., 1785

• Lichen sarcoides Jacq., 1781

• Octospora sarcoides (Pers.) Gray

• Ombrophila sarcoides (Jacq.) W. Phillips, 1887

• Peziza carnosa Oeder

• Peziza cellaris Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides Pers.

• Peziza turbinata Oeder

• Pirobasidium sarcoides (Jacq.) Höhn., 1902

• Scleroderris majuscula Cooke & Massee

• Tremella amethystea Bull.

• Tremella dubia (Pers.) Pers.

• Tremella galeata (Holmsk.) Pers.

• Tremella sarcoides (Jacq.) Fr., 1822

• Coryne sarcoides var. sarcoides (Jacq.) Tul. & C. Tul.

• Bulgaria sarcoides f. carnosa (Oeder) Fr.

• Bulgaria sarcoides f. cellaris (Pers.) Fr.

• Bulgaria sarcoides f. turbinata (Oeder) Fr.

• Coryne sarcoides var. carnosa (Oeder) Sacc.

• Coryne sarcoides var. dubia Corda

• Coryne sarcoides var. javanica Henn.

• Coryne sarcoides var. turbinata (Oeder) Sacc.

• Coryne sarcoides var. viridescens Rehm

• Coryne sarcoides var. winteri Rehm

• Peziza metamorpha var. labyrinthiformis Schumach.

• Peziza sarcoides var. cellaris Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. cylindrica Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. ferruginea Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. labyrinthiformis (Schumach.) Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. lobata Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. obconica Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. sarcoides Pers.

• Peziza sarcoides var. turbinata (Oeder) Pers.

• Tremella dubia var. amethystea (Bull.) Pers.

• Tremella dubia var. communis Alb. & Schwein.

• Tremella dubia var. dubia Pers.

• Tremella sarcoides var. fluxilis Fr.

• Tremella sarcoides var. galeata (Holmsk.) Fr.

• Tremella sarcoides var. vulgaris Alb. & Schwein.

Video

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