Geoglossum hakelieri Nitare, first discovery in Norway in 30 years

The earth tongue Geoglossum hakelieri is a very rare species only known from Norway and Sweden, first described in 1967 by Hakelier and representing only three finds in Norway (Bendiksen et. al 1998, Artskart 2024), and it has not been found since 1993. In the first week of September 2024 a workshop on grassland fungi was held in Tjøtta, Alstadhaug municipality, Nordland County. During three days of survey for grassland fungi in different localities, many rare and redlisted fungi were found including many earth tongues. Normally earth tongues must be examined microscopically to get a reliable identification, and most of the collections turned out to be either Geoglossum fallax (normally identified in the field) and Geoglossum umbratile, while a few collections turned out to be Geoglossum cookeanum. However, on the last day of the workshop, two of the participants made a collection of earth tongues, which in the field was thought to be Geoglossum umbratile, due to the brownish stipe. At first it was thought to be a species in the genus Microglossum since it had relatively small, mostly hyaline spores including a few with one or three septa. However, the spores measured between 30 and 40 which is considerably more than the spores of Microglossum. The brown curved paraphyses also did not fit with that genus. Most of the species in the genus Microglossum also have coloured ascocarps. A closer macroscopical examination of the collection showed that the colour of the ascocarp was blackish brown, not totally black. The conclusion is that a new collection of Geoglossum hakelieri had been found for the first time since 1993 on a new locality. This was a huge surprise since the species had not been spotted for more than 30 years in Norway and a new species for Nordland County.