For a few days we had temperatures above freezing point here in southern Finland. I then collected some twigs, which during the winter had fallen from the canopies of Quercus robur.

On the surface of one of these twigs I noticed a conical structure reminding of some gelatinous colourless heterobasidiomycete. However, under the microscope it was clearly a pyrenomycete with polysporous asci on a long pedicel. The clavate part of the asci is about 53-58 × 17-21 µm, IKI-. The gelatinous structure is clearly a Quellkörper about 430(?) x 290 µm. No paraphyses seen. The spores are allantoid, 9.8-12.0 × 2.4-2.8 µm, with one or a few guttules at each end, no septa.

The ascoma is about 600 µm diam, covered with a dark tomentum, immersed, only the Quellkörper visible above the surface. In the macro photo a second ascoma has been dug up from the cortex.

With the keys of Mugambi & Huhndorf (2010) this easily keys out as Cryptosphaerella celata (now perhaps Neocryptosphaerella c.). This is, however, a species known from only one locality in Kenya. The distance from a tropical highland forest to the snow and ice of southern Finland feels very long. Where did I go wrong, or what should I think about this one?