Microglossum viride
Champ. de France, Discomycetes: 25. 1879.
Common Name: Green Earth Tongue
Fruiting body 1-4 cm tall, slender, upper third occupied by a fertile "head," the latter club-shaped typically compressed, smooth, sometime grooved, up to 5 mm broad, turquoise-green when fresh fading to dull green; stipe 1-1.5 mm thick, surface granular, colored like the "head" but lighter.
Spores 13-16 x 5-6 µm, elongate-elliptical, kidney-shaped, or subfusoid, not septate, hyaline, smooth, 2-4 oil droplets per spore.
Solitary to clustered in moss or duff in mixed hardwood/conifer woods; fruiting from late winter to early spring.
Unknown.
This diminutive earth tongue with a bright blue-green fruiting body is one of the prettiest and unmistakable of spring fungi. Only Chlorociboria aeruginascens, a relatively uncommon cup fungus, which grows on rotting wood, is similarly colored. Related earth tongues in the genera Geoglossum and Trichoglossum are easily distinguished by their blackish hue.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (1984). Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 1: Ascomycetes. Verlag Mykologia: Luzern, Switzerland. 310 p.
Dennis, R.W.G. (1981). British Ascomycetes. J. Cramer: Vaduz, Liechtenstein. 585 p.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Kučera, V., Lizoň, P., Tomšovský, M., Kučera, J. & Gaisler, J. (2014). Re-evaluation of the morphological variability of Microglossum viride and M. griseoviride sp. nov. Mycologia 106(2): 282-290.
Medardi, G. (2006). Ascomiceti d'Italia. Centro Studi Micologici: Trento. 454 p.
Seaver, F.J. (1978). The North American Cup-Fungi (Inoperculates). Lubrecht & Cramer: Monticello, N.Y. 428 p.
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.