Hi Gary,
I also have access to an SEM and have looked at fungus spores quite a bit.
Yours don't look familiar to me, but your description of the fungus does not
correspond to anything I have looked at. If you look at David Arora's
"Mushrooms Demystified", you will see that he gives a description of the
spores of most species in the western US. Usually this has the shape,
length range and surface morphology briefly mentioned. To find the species,
though, you probably would not start from the spore.
Rick
Albuquerque.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Dear Gary,
Most interesting! Clearly you have a scanning electron microscope at
work. I used to do a lot on plant specimens. How did you prepare the
specimens prior to photography? My suspicion is that you sprinkled the
"spores" on a stub, maybe attaching them with double sided tape, and
then gold coated??? I suspect that the "sucked in" look is probably an
artefact, but you could only overcome this if you fixed the specimens
and used a critical point drier.
My absolute guess is you have something like a puffball, but I am not
great at fungi, and certainly not Californian fungi (I am in the UK!).
Maybe if you put up a photo of the "clump" it might aid in the ID. I
shall watch this string to see if we get anywhere!
Best Wishes,
Martin Hodson

Gary G wrote:
I found an usual clump in an outside corner of a door and figured
that
it was another wasp nest. Nope. It was fiber-like and very black
inside, of powder consistency. I figure that it is a fungus. The
"spores" look like pollen but differ in the protrusions that one
would
see on white blood cells. The following are links to images of this
stuff. Anyone have a clue to what this is?

http://www.microtechnics.com/fungi-1kx-1ann.jpg


http://www.microtechnics.com/fungi-10kx-1ann.jpg

AFAIK, there is no mycology group.

Gary Gaugler, Ph.D.
Microtechnics, Inc.
Granite Bay, CA 95746
916.791.8191
gary@microtechnics dot com