Most of the ascomycetes of the cordgrass shoot-decay system produce ascomata (sexual structures) that are, at their largest, just barely visible to the naked eye. The bright yellow, mushroom-like ascoma of Lachnum spartinae shown in this image is about 2 mm across, and can be seen in the marsh in the fall, on the oldest standing-decaying smooth-cordgrass leaf sheaths, during cool rainy periods. Although the shape is mushroomoid, the ascospores are formed on the upper surface of the "disk", and shot up and out, rather than released from the lower surface of the "cap", as in the basidiomycetes. In culture, L. spartinae is highly cellulolytic (lignocellulolytic?), perhaps not surprisingly, since it appears after all of the non- structural tissue of the leaf sheath would likely have been taken by its ascomycetous forerunners. See Cantrell et al, 1996, Mycotaxon 57:479-485.