Pyronema domesticum

A pyrophilous species found on burnt ground, fire pits, or charcoal sites, with orange ascomata with pinkish hues, 0.5 to 1.6 mm across, coalescent and crowded into dense colonies seated upon a whitish, thread-like mycelial subiculum.

Hyphae constituting the subiculum filamentous, hyaline, septate, branching, 4 to 8 µm wide.

Medullary excipulum formed by globose to polyhedral hyaline, thin-walled hyphae 15 to 40 µm in diameter, decreasing in size towards the exterior (ectal excipulum).

Asci cylindrical, 8-spored, 130 to 200 µm long, 11 to 14 µm wide, uniseriate, occupying only the upper part of the ascus, inamyloid in Melzer's reagent.

Paraphyses filiform, septate, with a slightly enlarged apex up to 3 to 6 µm wide, containing abundant orange granulations inside, scarcely or not protruding beyond the asci.

Ascospores ellipsoidal, smooth, hyaline or with faint greyish intracellular pigment, thin-walled, 14 to 16.5 µm long, 9.5 to 10.5 µm wide, with a smooth and homogeneous interior (without guttules or vacuoles).

Very similar to its congener Pyronema omphalodes, which has narrower spores (6.5 to 8.5 µm wide).