.jpg "Microglossum viride © Mark Steinmetz -- Click for Larger Image")
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.
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.
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.
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