Purple Jellydisc - Ascocoryne sarcoides
This species occurs in 2 forms. The asexual form (anamorph) looks like clusters of small pale to dark purple or wine-red clubs or fingers, which produce conidia. The texture is firm and gelatinous, and en masse they can appear brain-like. In its sexual form (teleomorph), it produces larger gelatinous discs or cups up to 1.5cm, which are smooth on the inner, fertile side and slightly downy outside; it may have a short or vague stem. This form produces the ascospores. The two forms often appear together.
Ascocoryne cylichnium cannot reliably be separated from the sexual state of A sarcoides; microscopic examination of spores is needed
Photograph on host plant; note substrate and associated tree species, and wheterh you are recording sexual or asexual form, or both. The sexual state (disc/cup shaped fruitbodies) cannot reliably be identifed in the field; microscopic examination of spores is needed.
Decaying wood from deciduous trees
Autumn
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Species profile
- Common names
- Purple Jellydisc
- Species group:
- fungus
- Kingdom:
- Fungi
- Order:
- Helotiales
- Family:
- Gelatinodiscaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 85
- First record:
- 23/10/2004 (Nicholls, David)
- Last record:
- 24/01/2026 (Graves, Hazel)
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