Hi Marja!
Congratulations for your find!
I guess how many nuclei spores have...
If you don´t bother and you have plenty sample, can you send some dry apos in order to try to get a molecular sequence?
Without commitment.
Kisses,
Raúl

Dear Raul,

I found these a few weeks ago and have sent some to Huhtinen and DNa-analysis is propably allready ordered.

These are really hard to collect, they are scanty and needles are plenty and there is mosses around them. I found only about 10 apos in an hour and could not be looking for more because of a cloud of mosquitos around me. They made collection painful and unpleasant ocassion.

Now that the weather is coming colder and mosquitos fewer, I may look for more, if there are some left.

Hugs: Marja

Thanks Marja, no problem if you don´t find more.
Here all is so dry that we even do not have mosquitos! 
Cheers,
Raúl

Hi Marja, 
Very interesting collection to me too as I lately read the paper by Huhtinen & Mäkinen after a collection last spring in Brittany  of D. acicola which is not frequent either in my area. 

As far as I can remember, D. piceicola is not a spring fungus but appears in late summer or autumn. So I hope you find it again this september  . 

Amitiés
Michel

Dear Michel.

I certainly hope so, too. Seppo would like to get an epitype. The type is one of the scanties in the world...

Now I'm too sick (flu) to do any collections, hope to get better before weekend.

Marja

Hi Marja,

crazy, I even did not know that Desmazierella has another species than D. acicola :D  

how did you identify it?

regards,
björn

Dear Björn,

when I first found these, the spores were not mature. So, I collected them more later.
I've been hunting Desmazierella and know about this finnish finding of another Desmazierella species.
When I collected the second time and found big, mature spores, the determination was easy - Nordic macromycetes 1 mentions D. piceicola. Now the other author Seppo Huhtinen has confirmed my determination.

I suppose, that there is only one collection of the species from Finland ealier. It consist of 2 apos and there is left only a half apo as type.

Marja

Thanks Marja, what about the place? Was is very wet? Or with some herbs or Rubus? Or just pure needles without any plants? I am asking because I will try to find this one too (after D. acicola this year).

regards,
björn

Hi,

this summer it has been raining regulary here.
The forrest was about  45-50 years old Picea forest, that had been thinned a long time ago, it was not very dense. The  collection was on downhill maybe 20-50 m away from the lowest point.
There were a lot of needles on the ground and some mosses. These tend to be found near the mosses, so they were not easy to notice and they were scanty.
The place was not very wet, actually the water still runs downhill from the place, where these were found. There were some grasses etc near, but not at the collection place.

Maybe I should take a photo of the place, when I go there next time.

I'm still searching for D. acicola...

Marja

Hi Marja,

thanks for the description. Good luck with finding the acicola. This species grows between March and May also not on pure pinus needles, but on pinus needles lying between mosses and herbs, almost very wet and sometimes not on the surface.

regards,
björn

Thanks Björn!

That will help. I've been looking for them in wrong places!
Just can't waite spring ;)
Actually these may also be covered with dry needles, if that will help you...
None were found upper hill, tried some spots.
I've tested some other promising looking places with no luck.
So it seems rare.

Marja

Hi Marja,

for me, "rare" is connected with the human inability to understand what exactly fungi need for growing. I have made this experience with many species, like Lamprospora crechqueraultii, Desmazierella acicola, Marcelleina persoonii...they all are described as "rare", but if you look for the right places, you'll find them easily. Just the special places can be rare.

With some of them it is easier, with others it is hard, because places look similar and you believe that there is something, but after looking for it, there is nothing.  

D. acicola probably grows directly after snowmelting. Just try it.

regards,
björn

Hi Björn,

I can't disagree.
I have found many species, that have very few colletions, quite common.
But often it is not the rareness of habitat, that makes the difference.  Usually the minute or just small size of fungi or myxomycetes is enough.
So, some species are considered rare just because there are too few collectors, that can find them. To make it simly: Collectors are rare, fungi not necessarily ;)

But still I have a feeling, that there are not so common species even on common habitats. Maybe I just don't visit the place in the right time.

Sieniterveisin: Marja

Hi there

Was your Finnish record published somewhere? Have just found it in Denmark so would like to get all published details. Unfortunately my material is not completely mature so I have to hunt for more.

See: https://svampe.databasen.org/observations/10196318

cheers

Seppo has pointed me to this publication:

Bonsdorff, T. von, Niskanen, T., Kytövuori, I., Liimatainen, K., Huhtinen, S., Vauras, J., Kokkonen, K., Söderholm, U., Kekki, T., Kosonen, L., Höijer, P. & Roponen, P. 2013: New national and regional biological records for Finland 3. Contributions to agaricoid and ascomycetoid taxa of fungi 2. – Memoranda Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 89: 111-118.

That publication is found online:

https://journal.fi/msff/article/view/40891

Maybe you know already, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Yes but thanks :-). I have now tried two more times at the same site but no luck although I possibly found extremely small primordia. So even when you know it is there and fruiting it can be difficult.
cheers

Thomas