Plectania melastoma
Jb. nassau. Ver. Naturk. 23-24: 323. 1870.
Common Name: none
For description see Carbone et al., Castellano et al., Nagasawa & Nakanishi & 'California Mushrooms'.
Solitary to scattered, often among mosses on well-rotted conifer wood especially in mossy Sitka spruce forests; uncommon, fruiting in spring in coastal conifer forests.
Unknown.
Plectania melastoma can be distinguished by small black cups with granulose, rusty orange external surface, large ellipsoid-subfusoid spores, and growth on rotten, often moss-covered conifer wood. Plectania milleri is similar, but its black external surface that lacks orange granules. Pseudoplectania nigrella also forms small cupulate fruitbodies, but they are entirely black, sessile, have globose spores, and usually grow on soil.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Beug, M.W., Bessette, A.E. & Bessette, A.R. (2014). Ascomycete Fungi of North America. University of Texas Press: Austin, TX. 488 p.
Carbone, M., Loizides, M. & Alvarado, P. (2015). Preliminary phylogenetic and morphological studies in the Plectania melastoma lineage (Ascomycota, Pezizales) . Ascomycete.org 7(1): 23-29. (PDF)
Castellano, M.A., Cázares, E., Fondrick, B. & Dreisbach, T. (2003). Handbook to additional fungal species of special concern in the Northwest Forest Plan (Gen. Tech Rep. PNW-GTR-572). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: Portland, OR. 144 p. (PDF)
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.
Gamundí, I.J. (2010). Genera of Pezizales of Argentina 1. An updating of selected genera. Mycotaxon 113: 1-60. (PDF)
Medardi, G. (2006). Ascomiceti d'Italia. Centro Studi Micologici: Trento. 454 p.
Nagasawa, E. & Nakanishi, T. (2017). The occurrence of Plectania melastoma (Pezizales, Sarcosomataceae)in Japan. Rep. Tottori Mycol. Inst. 47: 1-6. (PDF)
Tylutki, E.E. (1979). Mushrooms of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest: Discomycetes. University of Idaho Press: Moscow, ID. 133 p.
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
Spooner, B.M. (2002). The larger cup fungi in Britain. Part 4. Sarcoscyphaceae and Sarcosomataceae. Field Mycology 3(1): 9-14.