Part 52

Illustrations: Clav. fusiformis--WD 104⁹. C. vermicularis--WD 104¹⁰. C. fumosa--Hvass 303; WD 104¹¹. Clav. helvola--Hvass 300; WD 105¹.

~Clavulinopsis corniculata~ (Fries), Corner (p. 171).

Cap: absent. Fruit-body: complex; width 20-30 mm; length 20-40 mm.

Description: Plate 57.

Fruit-body: shape depending on the length of grass in which it grows but always branching strongly from its base, composed of a dense compact tuft of egg-yellow or orange-tawny branches which are either irregular or of equal length and so they form a flattened top to the fruit-body complex, the branchlets are slender, forked 2- or 3-times, with their apices narrowed or curved.

Stem: very downy at the base.

Flesh: pale yellow.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, smooth, spherical and 5-7 µm in diameter, not becoming bluish grey in iodine solutions.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Common amongst grass in fields or on grassy path sides in woodland.

General Information: Clavulinopsis corniculata is recognised by the branched habit and the smooth spores; Ramaria ochraceo-virens is of similar form, but has an overall duller colour and turns green on bruising, grows in pinewoods and has finely roughened brownish spores. Calocera viscosa also has an erect, bright golden or orange-yellow fruit-body which becomes more orange on drying. It is repeatedly branched and usually has a long, tough-rooting base. However, the spore-print is dirty yellowish and the fruit-body, which grows on coniferous wood, is viscid and elastic, a character reflected in the name ‘viscosa’. Microscopically the basidium of Calocera is shaped like a tuning-fork and is not clavate as in Clavulinopsis corniculata. It appears to be more related to the jelly-fungi (see p. 180).

Illustrations: Clavulinopsis corniculata--LH 55; NB 6; WD 104³. Calocera viscosa--Hvass 304; LH 225; NB 149³; WD 107⁸.

~Typhula erythropus~ Fries.

Cap: absent. Fruit-body up to 20 mm high.

Description:

Fruit-body: upper fertile portion club-shaped and not more than half the length, white, surmounting a reddish brown, thread-like, often wavy or twisted stem which is attached at its base to an ellipsoid bead-like structure, called a sclerotium.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: oblong, smooth, hyaline under the microscope, 6-7 × 2 µm in size and not becoming bluish grey in iodine solutions.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Not uncommon on dead leaves and twigs or dead herbaceous stems.

~Pistillaria micans~ Fries.

Cap: absent. Fruit-body: up to 10 mm high.

Description:

Club-shaped or oblong, rose-pink hardly differentiated from the similarly coloured stem, and arising at most from a small pad of filaments.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: broadly ellipsoid to pip-shaped, smooth, hyaline under the microscope, about 10 × 6 µm (8-11 × 5-7 µm) in size and not becoming bluish grey in iodine solutions.

Cystidia: absent.