Figure 439.—Helotium citrinum. Disc-fungus, yellow growing on rotten logs. Slightly magnified.
This is a beautiful little Disc-fungus, yellow, growing upon rotten logs in damp woods. They often grow in dense clusters; a beautiful lemon-yellow, the head being plane or concave, with a short, thick, paler stem, forming an inverted cone. Asci elongated, narrowly cylindrical, attenuated at the base into a long, slender, crooked pedicel, 8-spored.
Sporidia oblong, elliptical, with two or three minute nuclei.
This is quite a common plant in our woods during wet weather or in damp places, growing upon old logs and stumps, in woods, in the fall. Figure 439 will give an idea of their appearance when in dense clusters. The plants photographed by Dr. Kellerman.
Helotium lutescens. Fr.
Yellowish Helotium.
Lutescens means yellowish. The plants are small, sessile, or attached by a very short stem; closed at first, then expanding until nearly plane; disk yellow, smooth; asci clavate, 8 spored; spores hyaline, smooth.
Gregarious or scattered. Found on half-decayed branches.