page_title: Glutinoglossum glutinosum
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Glutinoglossum glutinosum / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Microscopic view of paraphyses and asci of the earthtongue fungus Glutinoglossum glutinosum. "Notes: Asci with Paraphyses extending beyond the ends of the asci"
context_page_description: Glutinoglossum glutinosum, commonly known as the viscid black earth tongue or the glutinous earthtongue, is a species of fungus in the family Geoglossaceae. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, it has been found in northern Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Although previously thought to exist in Australasia, collections made from these locations have since been referred to new species. G. glutinosum is a saprophytic species that grows on soil in moss or in grassy areas. The smooth, nearly black, club-shaped fruitbodies grow to heights ranging from 1.5 to 5 cm. The head is up to 0.7 cm long, and the stipes are sticky. Several other black earth tongue species are quite similar in external appearance, and many can be reliably distinguished only by examining differences in microscopic characteristics, such as spores, asci, and paraphyses. First described in 1796 as a species of Geoglossum, the fungus has gone through several changes of genera in its taxonomic history. It was placed in its current genus, Glutinoglossum, in 2013.
context_section_description: The club-shaped fruitbodies, which have a distinct blackish head and a more lightly colored stipe (dark brown), grow to heights ranging from 1.5 to 5 cm (0.6 to 2.0 in). The head is up to 0.7 cm (0.3 in) tall and ranges in shape from fuse-shaped to narrowly ellipsoidal to nearly cylindrical, and is somewhat compressed  on the sides. The nearly black, somewhat waxy head has a vertical groove down the middle. The stipe has a glutinous, dark grey-brown surface.
  The spores are smooth and cylindrical, sometimes with a slight swelling in the middle, and sometimes slightly curved; they measure 59–65 by 4–5 µm. G. glutinosum spores have between two and seven septa, although three is most typical in mature specimens. The thin-walled asci (spore-bearing cells) are cylindrical to narrowly club-shaped, eight-spored, and typically measure 200–265 µm long by 12–16 µm wide. Ascospores occupy about the upper two-thirds to three-quarters of the ascus, leaving a hyaline (transparent) base. The paraphyses, hyaline at the base and brown in the upper regions, are 4–11 µm wide, and longer than the asci. Cells at the end of the paraphyses are pear-shaped (piriform) or spherical, brownish, and measure 8–10 µm wide. The sticky material on the stipe is a gelatinous matrix made of a layer of paraphyses.
  Although black earth tongue species are generally not worth eating, Charles McIlvaine opined in his 1902 work One Thousand American Fungi that, if stewed, G. glutinosum is "delicious."
caption: The pear-shaped or spherical tips of the paraphyses extend beyond the asci.
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