Trichoglossum hirsutum

Description

Trichoglossum hirsutum is a species of fungi in the family Geoglossaceae. It is a black club-shaped fungus 3–8 cm high. The cap is usually 1–2 cm tall. The spores are produced on the enlarged upper part. The flesh is thin, tough and brownish. The stem is up to 6 cm long and 1–4 mm thick, cylindrical and velvety. It is found in woodlands in North America, Europe, Macaronesia and Africa. They’re usually found fruiting in moss beds in the bush or sometimes on lawns.

This mushroom is one of several black earth tongues that occur locally. All require a microscope for identification.

Common names: Hairy Earth-Tongue, Shaggy Earth-Tongue, Velvety Earth-Tongue, Velvety-Black Earth-Tongue.

Mushroom Identification

1. Stroma (fruitbody)

   3 to 8cm tall overall, the stromata are black and club-like, comprising a longitudinally indented fertile section 2cm long above a more or less cylindrical and velvety infertile stem.

2. Setae

   The fertile section is covered in stiff black spines 150-225µm long that extend beyond the tips of the asci.

3. Asci

   Cylindrical, 180-220 x 20-24µm; 8-spored, with the spores in parallel bunches - not unlike hands of slimline bananas.

4. Spores

   Ascospores elongated cylindrical to fusiform with an acute base and a rounded apex; fairly thick-walled; smooth, 80-195 x 5-7µm; multiseptate (usually 15-septate).

5. Spore Print

   Light brown.

6. Paraphyses

   Paraphyses are filiform, 2-3µm in diameter except for the tips and extending slightly beyond the asci; curved or coiled at the apex, which is swollen to 4-6µm in diameter.

7. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

8. Habitat & Ecological Role

   On the ground in unimproved grassland and in mossy dune slacks, often on acidic soil.

Look-Alikes

1. Geoglossum cookeanum

   Similar earthtongue that grows in the same habitats, but it does not have hairs on its fertile surface.

2. Xylaria polymorpha

   Is an ascomycete of similar size. It grows on dead hardwood and its stromata (compound ascomycetous fruitbodies) are not usually laterally compressed or indented.

3. Trichoglossum walteri

   Similar but has spores 50–115 micrometers, with 7 divisions.

4. Geoglossum fallax and Microglossum viride

   Are also similar.

History

This earthtongue species was described in 1794 by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, who gave it the scientific binomial name Geoglossum hirsutum. It was French mycologist Jean Louis Émile Boudier who in 1907 transferred this species to the genus Trichoglossum (which Boudier himself had created in 1885), thereby establishing its currently-accepted scientific name as Trichoglossum hirsutum.

Synonyms of Trichoglossum hirsutum include Geoglossum hirsutum Pers.

The genus name Trichoglossum comes from Tricho- meaning with hairs (a reference to the tiny hair-like spines, known as setae, on the spore-bearing surface) and -glossum meaning tongue.

The specific epithet hirsutum also means hairy.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Holger Krisp (CC BY 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Len Worthington (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Alan Rockefeller (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: natureluvr01 (CC BY-SA 2.0)