Image of Diderma Persoon 1794

Description:

Habitat: Alpine upland, partly steep grassland partly Pinus mugo stands on steep rock, east oriented slope, fully exposed to sun and precipitations, just one or two meters off still snow covered terrain, precipitations ~3.000 mm/year, average temperature 2-4 deg C, elevation 1.530 m (5.000 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: Dead rotten grasses and twigs laying on ground where the snow melted just a few days back. Description: Outer white shell of 'balls' breaks off easily. Beneath it is another irregular white-black check-board like 'crust',. Underneath it there is a sometimes dense, sometimes loose net of shiny black fibers mainly radially oriented. In the middle there is an entirely black mass with apparently some hollow spaces. No distinct columella could be seen. Specimens brought home produced abundant 'black smoke' when moved after two days of drying. It is interesting that the place where I photographed the stuff had still to be covered by rapidly melting snow just a few days before I took the pictures. Acknowledgement: Many thanks for determination and comments to Irene Andersson, Darvin DeShazer, Gerhard Koller and Clive Shirley at MushroomObserver.org.