Dear all,

These small, orange-yellow apothecia were collected on a dying oak branch in South-Western Norway on January 21st.  The exterior is notably blackish. Asci measure 65-75 x 5-6 microns, and the spores 8-10 x 1.5-2 (-3) microns (in water). Spores are narrowly ellipsoid/fusiform with a few "refractive bodies", especially near the poles. Ascus apex is IKI- (Lugol). Strangely, despite numerous discharged spores in the preps, it is difficult to find asci with mature spores inside. It may seem like the asci in the photos are 4-spored, but I think I have seen asci with more than 4 spores, so presumably they are normally 8-spored. Paraphyses are filiform, only slightly enlarged at the apex (to ca. 2-2.5 microns). In water, the tips of the paraphyses seem to contain tiny reddish granules. I guess what I see in one of the photos is a crozier. The ectal excipulum I would say is textura intricata or epidermoidea (or inbetween). It seems like there are dark brown resinous bodies in the ectal excipulum.

I have understood that the delimitation between Phaeohelotium, Hymenoscyphus and Cudoniella is not straightforward, both from discussions on this forum and from Baral's photo inventory on Google Disk.  Good literature is scarce, to my knowlegde.

Any suggestion here?

Thanks.