Examples of the diversity of ascomata in the Pezizomycotina

Examples of the diversity of ascomata in the Pezizomycotina. A, apothecia of Aleuria aurantia (Pezizomycetes); Aleuria fruit bodies are whitish, yellowish to orange (hence the common name Orange Peel Fungus) and may be 1 to 30 mm tall and 1 to 160 mm wide. B, apothecia of the Cup Fungus, Peziza howsei (Pezizomycetes); Peziza produces soft and fragile, disc- to cup-shaped fruit bodies, 2 to 120 mm high and 5 to 150 mm across, may have a stem up to 30 mm long, colour whitish, or yellow, pink, blue, buff, brown, or grey to blackish. C, yellow apothecia of the Glasscup, Orbilia delicatula (Orbiliomycetes); soft and fragile and only 0.05 to 0.3 mm high, 0.1 to 2 mm wide, on a white mycelium. D, apothecia of Trichophaea hybrida (Pezizomycetes); 1 to 5 mm high and 1 to 15 mm wide, buff to dark grey and the outer surface downy to hairy. E, club-shaped or spatulate apothecium of the Earthtongue, Geoglossum cookeanum (Leotiomycetes); generally soft and fragile, 10 to 100 mm tall, 3 to 25 mm wide, purple to brownish black. F, Cinnamon Jellybaby, Cudonia confusa (Leotiomycetes); rather mushroom like, club-shaped fruit body (though the hymenium covers the outer surface of the ‘cap’ or head), 20 to 80 mm tall, 5 to 20 mm across the head. G, Saddle Fungus, Helvella crispa (Pezizomycetes); with a saddle-shaped, folded and stipitate apothecium, up to 50 mm high and 30 mm wide. H, fruit body of the Morel, Morchella esculenta (Pezizomycetes); the fruit body on the left has been sliced open vertically to show the hollow stem and head, 30 to 300 mm high and 15 to 160 mm wide. I, the Summer Truffle, Tuber aestivum (Pezizomycetes); fruit body is tuberoid to spherical, longest dimension up to 70 mm, this specimen has been sliced open to shown the massively folded spore-bearing inner mass of flesh (the gleba). See http://www.mycokey.com/ for more details. Photographs A-H by Jens H. Petersen, University of Aarhus, Denmark; I by Jan Vesterholt, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; all images © Jens H. Petersen/MycoKey 2010.