1 February 2009 Hampshire. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. Common Name Coral spot fungus Fruiting Body Initially forming a conidal (asexual) stage consisting of a soft, pinkish, pin head sized blob. This transforms into the perithecial (sexual) stage, consisting of a small clump of hard, tiny +/- spherical, dark red fruiting bodies. Flesh The sexual stage has hard red flesh. Smell Indistinct Taste Indistinct Season All year Distribution Very common Habitat On dead wood of deciduous and, more rarely, coniferous trees Microscopic Features Ascospores ellipsoidal to fusiform, usually 1 septate but also aseptate and 2 septate, smooth (11.5-21.5) x (3-7) µm2. Edibility Inedible Notes The sexual stage could be confused with other species in the Nectria, Neonectria, Cosmospora and related genera 
29 March 2008 Buckinghamshire. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. |