Gloniopsis praelonga

The fruit body is black, hard, generally 0.5-2 millimetres in length, much narrower than long, not taller than wide and with a fissure running along the length of the fruit body. The fruit bodies usually appear in large groups. Technically this type of fruit body is called a hysterothecium and hysterothecial fungi are ascomycetes. Hysterothecial fungi are fairly common but easily overlooked. Often you find them on hard, weathered wood in exposed habitats (e.g. on old wooden fence-posts, power poles or paling fences).

Gloniopsis praelonga is a cosmopolitan species.

Look-alikes

There are about a dozen genera in the families Hysteriaceae and Gloniaceae with such hysterothecia and identification of genera relies heavily on spore features.

The closest microscopic look-alike is Hysterobrevium smilacis. Both species have colourless spores but those of Gloniopsis praelonga are larger (mostly longer than 25 microns and up t0 15 wide; versus mostly shorter than 25 microns and up to 10 wide) and are more ‘wall-like’ in appearance because of the numerous cross-wise and length-wise septa.

Other hysterothecial genera on Canberra Nature Map

Hysterium

Hysterobrevium

Oedohysterium