The little orange "gumdrops" in this image (about 150 µm across) are formed right on the surface of standing-decaying leaf blades of smooth cordgrass. They are ascomata of Hydropisphaera erubescens, an hypocrealean ascomycete. Here are the ascospores of this species (about 21 µm long, in the ascus on left and free on right). This species occurs at highest frequency (to 78% of blades) in summer, and has not been found north of Georgia. Amy Rossman has found that rDNA base-sequencing indicates that this species is identical to Hydropisphaera erubescens from terrestrial leaf litter. H. erubescens from smooth cordgrass occurs at heights on shoots where it is regularly immersed in seawater, so it is at least a facultatively marine fungus. Other hypocrealean species are mycoparasites used in biocontrol; could the cordgrass Hydropisphaera be parasitic on other cordgrass ascomycetes growing within the standing-decaying blades? See Newell, SY. 2001. Spore-expulsion rates and extents of blade occupation by ascomycetes of the smooth-cordgrass standing-decay system. Bot. Mar. 44:277-285.