- 1893. Licea biforis Morgan, Jour. Cin. Soc., p. 5.
Sporangia regular, compressed, sessile on a narrow base, gregarious; the wall firm, thin, smooth, yellow brown in color and nearly opaque, with minute, scattered granules on the inner surface, at maturity opening into two equal parts, which remain persistent by the base; spores yellow-brown in mass, globose or oval, even, 9–12 u.
Minute but perfectly regular, almost uniform, corneous-looking sporangia are thickly strewn over the inner surface of decaying bark. Each, at first elongate, pointed at each end, opens at length by fissure along the upper side setting free the minute yellowish spores. Unlike anything else; reminding one, at first sight, of some species of Glonium.
Inside bark of Liriodendron. Ohio, Canada.
3. Licea minima Fries.
- 1829. Licea minima Fries, Syst. Myc., III., p. 199.
Sporangia gregarious, umber-brown, spherical or hemispherical, sessile; the peridium opaque, brown, opening along prefigured lines, forming segments with dotted margins, ultimately widely reflexed; spores in mass dark brown, by transmitted light paler with olive tints, minutely roughened, 10–11 µ.
The very minute sporangia, 3 mm., of this species cause it to be overlooked generally by collectors. Nevertheless, it may be found on decaying soft woods, in August, probably around the world. The number of sporangia produced by one plasmodium is in Iowa also small. The larger specimens might be mistaken for species of Perichaena, but are easily distinguished by the regular and lobate dehiscence. The plasmodium is yellow.
Dr. George Rex, in almost the last paper from his hand, gives an interesting account of this diminutive species. Among various gatherings studied he found a black variety, a melanistic phase, so to say, and was able to follow the evolution of the sporangia from the yellow plasmodium. The sutures by which the peridium opens, first show signs of differentiation by change of color from yellow through garnet to black. Later the entire wall undergoes similar color changes, beginning next the completed sutural delimitations. Of the open peridia, the reflexed segments remind one of certain didermas, as D. radiatum. See Bot. Gaz., Vol. XIX., p. 399.
New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa.