Cyphellaceae s.l.

© Sava Krstic

Danny’s DNA Discoveries – Cyphellaceae of the PNW (Marasmiineae)
by Danny Miller

Click here for my Pictorial Key to the pleurotoid and mycenoid statures, where many of these species are found.

Introduction

The Cyphellaceae s.l. include some more primitive shaped crust and cup mushrooms growing on wood (usually cups are ascos, not basidios), as well as many gilled mushrooms of pleurotoid (eccentric stems on wood) and mycenoid (conical on the ground or wood) stature (as well as a few collybioids).

Many other genera in many other families meet this family's identification criteria as well. Unfortunately, there's not much rhyme nor reason to identifying the vast multitude of miscellaneous white spored mushrooms to family, as many mushrooms in different families and even sub-orders lack distinctive traits, so they have to be learned individually.

Although an ITS tree might show these genera intermingling with the Porotheleaceae, an LSU tree in a 2022 study shows the two families as separate. They are at least close sister families to each other, and I don't think we've heard the final word on if they should be kept separate or combined into one big family.

abundant common uncommon rare - colour codes match my Pictorial Key and are my opinions and probably reflect my bias of living in W WA. Rare species may be locally common in certain places at certain times.

Summary of Interesting Results
Here are some of the newest, most interesting results of the study:

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Crust and Cups (Chondrostereum, Cyphella) - click to expand
Crust - Chondrostereum has a reflexed cap and a purple underside.
Cup - Cyphella - tiny white stemless cups on wood, perhaps with a hairy margin.
Most cups are Ascomycota. Besides the Cyphellaceae and the Porotheleaceae, the only other Basidiomycota cups are found in the Niaceae.
Species mentioned: Chondrostereum purpureum. Cyphella marginata.

Chondrostereum purpureum EU - a crust with a reflexed cap that is purple underneath when fresh. One collection exuded red droplets, which has not been noticed before. Keep an eye out for that. WA and OR sequences match hundreds of EU and worldwide sequences quite well.
Cyphella cf marginata Australia - minute yellow cups <1 mm across with brown hairs around the rim on fruit tree twigs. This was described in Maireina, in the Niaceae, but is generally accepted in Cyphella. No DNA from anywhere.

unsequenced Chondrostereum purpureum © Kit Scates Barnhart and Danny Miller

Pleurotoid (Cheimonophyllum) - click to expand
These are the pleurotoid species in the family, on hardwoods with a short, stubby lateral stem.
Cheimonophyllum is a tiny, dry, chalky white oyster with hyphoid cheilocystidia.
Species mentioned: Cheimonophyllum candidissimum, haedinum.

Cheimonophyllum candidissimum EU - a tiny, dry, chalky white oyster on hardwoods usually with a short, stubby lateral stem. Our AK and WA sequences match 100% with a few EU sequences, except one EU sequence has a very long indel. A recent paper says that this is a newer synonym of Cheimonophyllum haedinum from Cuba, but they did not obtain any sequences from Cuba, just one from Europe to justify that, so I await better evidence.

Cheimonophyllum candidissimum © Ed Barge

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