Hypoxylon Fungi

A branch from an oak tree (Quercus sp) with two species of Hypoxylon fungus growing on it: along the top the dark brown fruiting bodies of Hypoxylon fragiforme; along the bottom the yellowing asexual fruiting bodies of Hypoxylon howeanum (= Hypoxylon howeianum).  The latter were a subject of a post last month. In this post I take a quick look at the H. fragiforme fruiting bodies:

These yielded the following spores (magnification x600, field width 86um):

These are about 11.5 x 5um which agrees well with the 10-15 x 4.4-6.8um given for H. fragiforme but is too large for the 6.8-8.8 x 3.4-4.8um given for H. howeanum.

First photo and specimen taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2014-02-09.