Daldinia Vernicosa: A Pyroxylophilous Fungus

Abstract

Summary1. Daldinia vernicosa, as is typical of certain other fungi, occurs prevailingly on a substratum of burnt wood, and is to be regarded as a pyroxylophilous fungus.2. In its occurrence, it apparently is confined to dicotyledonous species and attacks fire-killed saplings, particularly those of hickory, with great vigor.3. Out of a total of 363 dicotyledonous trees occurring upon an average sample tract (100 by 500 feet) of a burned area, 46, or 13 per cent., bore sporophores of Daldinia vernicosa within 1 year and 3 months after the trees were scorched by fire.4. Of the 24 (mostly tropical) species of Daldinia given in Saccardo, most of them can be considered as mere growth forms or ecological expressions of Daldinia concentrica, a widely distributed plant of cosmopolitan occurrence.5. Only two species of Daldinia occur in the United States, D. concentrica and D. vernicosa, which appear to be morphologically quite distinct.6. The dehiscence of the colorless exospore wall occurs along a single central peripheral line and seems to be a characteristic feature of regular occurrence with the spores of both Daldinia vernicosa and D. concentrica, when mounted in dilute alkaline solutions.