Part 53

Habitat & Distribution: Not uncommon on dead herbaceous stems and leaves, especially those in damp places.

Illustrations: T. erythropus WD 105¹⁰. P. micans WD 105⁷.

General notes on the club-fungi

Early mycologists believed that the club-shaped nature of the fruit-body was important in the classification of these fungi. Thus the Earth Tongues (Geoglossum, see Plate 57), the Stag’s horn fungi and relatives (Xylosphaera see p. 204), both Ascomycete groups, the Dacrymycetales (a group of jelly-fungi, see p. 180) and the true fairy-clubs were all classified together. It was the ‘Father of Mycology’, the Swede, Elias Fries, who in 1821, as in many other groups of fungi, made an attempt to make some sense of the chaos. By very careful observations, and what is so amazing without using a microscope, he was able to separate the tough stemmed and gelatinous stemmed groups from the more slender or coral-like ones. Fries was a very keen observer and noticed features which many modern authorities miss in the field because they rely too heavily on the microscope. Fries’ system was used almost unchanged until the second half of this century; its beauty was its simplicity in that it joined together in one group all those fungi with simple basidia and the spore-bearing tissue distributed all around a simple club or around the branches of a complex fruit-body resembling a coral. However, by a careful examination of the microscopic structures, such as the spores and hyphae and the development of the fruit-body, it has been found necessary to separate these fungi still further. The ecology of the club-fungi has assisted in an understanding of these proposed divisions.

The larger many branched clavarias, more correctly placed in the genus Ramaria, are to be found on bare soil in woodlands and plantations; R. ochraceo-virens is common in conifer plantations and can be recognised by the long ornamented spores, which characterise this group of fungi, and the fact that the sandy-coloured fruit-body becomes dark olive-green on bruising (see p. 170).

Clavariadelphus pistillaris is the largest of our simple club-fungi; it may grow up to 200 mm high and 50 mm wide. This fungus has a wrinkled outer surface and sometimes the apex of the club becomes flattened and lacks basidia; this suggests a possible relationship, perhaps evolutionary, to the primitive chanterelles (see p. 162)--also woodland fungi. Clavulina, a complex group of dull or whitish, branched fruit-bodies, has been described earlier and the genus is characterised by the large spores and 2-spored basidia; they are woodland fungi also.

The grassland species are often simple in structure belonging in the main to the genus Clavulinopsis (see p. 170) and the now much reduced genus Clavaria (see p. 168). Although really complex, some of these species of Clavulinopsis are branched only below the soil level and thus appear as single clubs amongst the grass. Perhaps the single club has evolved especially to grow amongst blades of grass. C. corniculata, however, is well branched and the head is tight and compact and often flattened close to the ground. The same fungus in woodland is more open and because of this it was thought to be a different species to the grassland form. It is the simple club which dominates the form of those species which grow on herbaceous debris and grass-stems; indeed several species of Typhula cause diseases of grass particularly those of lawns where they have suffered damage because of cold or long periods under the snow. Some of these small fungi produce a small hard mass of fungal tissue about the size of a lupin seed (called a sclerotium). This is a resting body from which the club-shaped almost filament-like fruit-body later develops.

~Thelephora terrestris~ Fries

Earth-fan

Cap: absent. Fruit-body: width 20-40 mm; height 30-50 mm.

Description:

Fruit-body: erect, fan-shaped or effused with upturned margin, tough but thin and fibrous, chocolate-brown or cocoa-coloured, scaly from radiating fibrils and with fringed, pale buff or wine-coloured margin.

Gills: absent and replaced by a wrinkled or irregularly granular, dark lilaceous grey or cocoa-coloured surface.

Flesh: brown and thin.

Spore-print: purplish brown.

Spores: medium sized, dark brown under the microscope, warted-angular and 8-9 × 6-7 µm in size.

Cystidia: absent but basidia often filled with brown contents.

Basidia: 2-4 spored.

Habitat & Distribution: Found on the ground in woods, especially pine woods; also on heathland growing up vegetation and incorporating it into the fruit-body’s shape.

General Information: There is some evidence to suggest that this fungus can form mycorrhiza with pine trees under certain conditions.

Although it may be easily passed over because it is perfectly camouflaged it is quite easy to recognise when collected. T. palmata (Bulliard) Patouillard, is a bigger, less frequently seen species more coral-like in shape; it also grows in pine woods. When the fruit-body of T. terrestris spreads over the soil or plant debris it resembles other members of the family to which it belongs, i.e. Thelephoraceae; species of Tomentella. They also have warty angular spores, purplish brown colours, and wrinkled or puckered spore-bearing surfaces. Tomentella spp., however, are resupinate or encrusting and so do not form caps, even at the margin of the fruit-body. Tomentella is one of the many genera which were classed collectively as resupinate fungi because they lack a cap and form crusts. This group ‘the resupinates’ consists of a whole series of quite unrelated fungi.

Illustrations: LH 53; NB 47⁸.

(iv) Resupinate fungi

When mycologists talk generally about ‘resupinates’ they are referring to a whole group of Basidiomycetes whose spore-bearing layer is exposed, the cap highly reduced or completely lacking, and the fungus adhering to the surface of the substrate which may be soil, wood, grasses, etc., at the point which would have been the cap of an agaric. Probably members of the group are the most commonly seen yet it is one of the most commonly ignored groups of fungi--by naturalists and mycologists alike; they form ‘white wash’ on old sticks, dark coloured discolourations on trunks, etc. It is an entirely artificial group of many quite unrelated elements united on the common factor of having either a reduced or primitive fruit-body consisting only of a sheet of tissue. However, these same fungi have a uniting factor in that they frequent the same ecological sites, e.g. on muddy soil in bogs, under overhangs of banks and stream sides, undersides of logs, trunks, branches and twigs, hidden in cracks of old stumps or spreading over carpets of conifer needles or dead leaves and sedges.

By studying the anatomy of the fruit-body and the characters of the spores certain relationships can be found which relate many of these fungi to several other groups of fungi we have dealt with in earlier chapters.

It is only possible to mention here the group as a whole for all the species really require very careful examination, often necessitating several hours of microscope work. They should be left by the beginner until more experience is obtained and advice of an expert easily available.

Although the group mainly contains saprophytes, a few are parasitic. ‘Silver-leaf disease’ of almonds and fruit trees is caused by Stereum (chondrostereum) purpureum (Persoon) Fries; it has a purple fruiting surface, and greyish upper surface when ever this is formed at the margin.

There are several species of Stereum in Britain, three species of which when handled in the fresh state stain red: S. sanguinolentum (A. & S.) Fries, a pale coloured species on conifer wood, S. rugosum (Pers.) Fries a similar coloured species on beech, birch and especially hazel, and S. gausapatum Fries an ochraceous yellow species on oak, often forming a pocket rot of the timber. However, the commonest member of the genus is an orange-tawny coloured species with a greyish buff, hairy cap, S. hirsutum (Willd) Fries. It grows on many trees of broad-leaved wood and can be found wherever twigs, branches, trunks or stumps have been lying out in the rain; it does not bleed.