Hello Mathias,
With that appearance and the spores you described certainly it is not a Microglossum. It is something else, like Macrotyphula or relatives.

it would be nice to establish how the spores are formed: inside asci or on basidia - before we jump to conclusions :-)

Good evening, ladies an gentlemen - 

it's an ascomycete, for sure - Matthias wrote so expressis verbis and did not send his message to Basidiofrance ... ;-)

The spores remind of Thumenidium (Geoglossum) berteroi, a wood inhabiting species of the southern hemisphere. Spooner (1987) examined material from Tasmania, with spores measuring 6-10 x 0,9-1,3um, "usually curved, sometimes allantoid, hyaline". What doesn't fit is the coulour which Spooner described as "vinaceous or purple-brown, drying blackish", perhaps following Gamundi who described the taxon from subantarctic Argentina (and Tasmania). The South American species, however, is more spathulate than the slender specimen on Matthias' photograph. 

Best regards
Till

Hi everyone,
In spite of the criticism underlying the previous messages and don't fill guilty of anything. I gave my opinion to someone that explicitely asked for it and I'm not responsible for the omission of important details by the one that has them. Since, on the other hand, I'm very much interested in Microglossum and similar, I would like, if possible, to see the microscopy of this specimen.
Sincerely,
zaca

Dear Zaca, 

sorry, I didn't mean to offend you - I just repeated what Matthias wrote. Perhaps I should add that I know Matthias personally; he has published some nice articles on Asco- and Basidiomycetes in Mycologia Bavarica and definitely knows the difference. I agree with you that it would be interesting to see photographs of the micros.

All the best
Till

No problem, Till!
Let's hope we can see photos from the microscopy of this interesting specimen.
Sincerely, 
zaca

Thank you Till for your reply. Genevieve Gates from Hobart University, Tasmania, asked Peter Johnston from New Zealand for his opinion. He also suggested Thuemenidium berteroi or Mitrula vinosa but, as you said, the colour of the fruitbodies does not match very well.
Unfortunately, I have no microscopic photos available yet as microscopy was performed by Genevieve. I will ask her to take photos and post them on this forum later, if possible.

Matthias

Here comes two photos of asci (x500) and spores (x1250) of the above-mentioned specimen. Both microscopical photos are copyrigth to Dr. Genevieve Gates, Hobart, Tasmania. I look forward to your ideas and to an extended discussion. Thank you - merci beaucoup
Matthias

Hi Matthias,
It seems that I was completely wrong in the initial appreciation of this specimen in face of its photo. The subsequent comments and the photos of the microscopy, which are not very clear to me, indicate that it is, in fact, an ascomycete. Moreover, with the information supplied by the previous messages, now we know that you gave the specimen to analysis to people that know much more on the subject than you can expect to hear from me. I hope you will succeed to go to the end of research that probably will end up with something new, due to the special morphology of the specimen.
Best wishes,
zaca