The specialist wrote the following after I sent him a specimen: I looked at your material and the mystery has been solved: it is Metatrichia vesparia. Normally beautiful red in color. This material has apparently been affected by a fungus, causing many sporocarps to be black-brown. That turns out to be a layer on the peridium because underneath they are red and the capillitium and spores clearly point to M. vesparia. It is very remarkable that a metallic shiny membrane covers the fungal layer, exactly like some peridia!
Metatrichia vesparia (Batsch) Nann.-Bremek. ex G.W. Martin & Alexop.
by Petra Fleurbaaij
Nov 1, 2023
The specialist wrote the following after I sent him a specimen: I looked at your material and the mystery has been solved: it is Metatrichia vesparia. Normally beautiful red in color. This material has apparently been affected by a fungus, causing many sporocarps to be black-brown. That turns out to be a layer on the peridium because underneath they are red and the capillitium and spores clearly point to M. vesparia. It is very remarkable that a metallic shiny membrane covers the fungal layer, exactly like some peridia!