[Vo]:Ascomata

[Horace Heffner]

It may well be that some of the objects in the Phoenix photographs I  
have taken for Foraminids may in fact be ascomata, fruiting bodies.   
For a good photographic match see the photo:

http://www.mycolog.com/4_Trochila_unopened.jpg
which can be found in context by locating Trochila in the page:

http://www.mycolog.com/CHAP4b.htm

Trochila is about halfway through this very large web page.  This  
kind of ascoma opens somewhat like a clam, because a lid pops off,  
exposing the white hymenium underneath.

Looking back through the micrographs, there appears to be plenty of  
evidence of split ascoma remains, as well as hyphal blooms.  The Sol  
73 photos show some good examples. The photo:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=19228&cID=209

shows various bodies that appear to be fragments of or split ascoma,  
especially the following:


<<inline: Picture 1.png>>


Though the Trochila is a fungus, lichen is essentially comprised of a  
symbiotic mix of fungus and algae, so any fungal structure is a  
candiate to be observed in a lichen on Mars.

Note also the "matchstick" like structures found in Order  
Clavicipitales, found also described in:

http://www.mycolog.com/CHAP4b.htm


Best regards,

Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/