Trichia decipiens
Synonyms:
-
Arcyria decipiens
Systematics: Type: Protozoa (Protozoa) Infratype: Myxomycota Class: Myxomycetes (Myxomycetes) Order: Trichiales Family: Trichiaceae Genus: Trichia (Trichia) Species: Trichia decipiens (Trichia deceptive)
Description
Trichia deceiving attracts our attention with an unusual look. Its fruiting bodies look like bright red-orange or modest olive-brown beads, generously scattered in fairly damp weather on some rotten snag or an equally well-worn stump. The rest of the time, she lives in secluded places in the form of amoebas or plasmodium (multinucleated vegetative body) and does not come across.
Plasmodium is white, during maturation it becomes pink or pink-red. On it in groups, often very numerous, sporangia are formed. They are clavate, inverse-teardrop-shaped or elongated, up to 3 mm in height and 0.6 – 0.8 mm in diameter (occasionally there are specimens of a more “solid” constitution, up to 1.3 mm in diameter), with a shiny surface, red or red-orange, later yellow-brown or yellow-olive, on a short whitish stalk.
The shell (peridium) is yellow, membranous, almost transparent in the thinnest areas, thickened in the lower part, after the destruction of the top of the fruiting body it remains in the form of a shallow calyx.
Capillicum (a fibrous structure that promotes the dispersion of spores) of a rich olive or olive-yellow color, consists of simple or branching, spirally twisted together in 3 – 5 pieces, threads (elater), 5 – 6 microns in diameter, which become thinner at the ends.
The spore mass is olive or olive-yellow, olive-yellow or light-yellow in the light. Spores are rounded, 10 – 13 microns in diameter, with a reticulate, warty or prickly surface.
Trichia is deceiving – cosmopolitan. It is found on decaying coniferous and deciduous wood throughout the growing season (in mild climates all year round).
Photo: Alexander, Maria
