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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
‘Fairy Clubs’, ‘Club fungi’, ‘Coral fungi’.
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; simple, or compound; clustered, or solitary; not sparassidioid (q.v.); erect-linear and unbranched, or erect-clavate and unbranched, or branched (without a distinct head); small to very large; (2–)4–15(–20) cm high; brightly pigmented to not brightly pigmented; yellowish-brown, or light brown, or reddish-brown, or dark brown, or orange, or yellow, or blackish. The hymenium ribbed, or smooth. The basidia ‘unmodified’; 4-sterigmate (these straight or only slightly curved). The basidiospores typically uniguttulate; ballistosporic; white, or yellow, or olive, or brown; smooth, or ornamented (then echinulate).
The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The hyphae monomitic. The generative hyphae inflated.
Chemical reactions. The context hyphae not xanthochroic; negative to ferric chloride.
Ecology. Saprophytic. The fruit-bodies borne on the ground (mostly), or on dead wood (Clavaria fistulosa, sometimes). Found in grassy places, in heathland, in coniferous woodland, in broad-leaved woodland, in mixed woodland.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. Clavaria, Clavulinopsis, Macrotyphula, Multiclavula, Ramariopsis.
World representation. 54 species; genera 5. “Widespread”.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Agaricales.
Comments. Some Clavulinopsis species may be lichenized.
Illustrations. • Clavaria argillacea, Clavulinopsis (2 spp.), Macrotyphula (2 spp.) (LH). CLAVARIACEAE. 1, Macrotyphula fistulosa; 2, Macrotyphula juncea. 3, Clavulinopsis corniculata; 4, Clavulinopsis helvola; 5, Clavaria argillacea. Sunesen & Dahlstrøm, in Lange & Hora (1965). • Clavaria amethystina and Clavinulopsis umbrinella (Berkeley). CLAVARIACEAE. 2, Clavaria amethystina (Bull.) Donk.; 4, Clavulinopsis umbrinella (Sacc.) Corner. AURICULARIACEAE. 1, Auricularia mesenterica (Dicks.) Pers.; 7, Auricularia auricula-judae (Jew's Ear). CLAVULINACEAE. 3, Clavulina rugosa (Bull.) J. Schrot. RAMARIACEAE. 5, Ramaria stricta (Pers.) Quél.). HELOTIACEAE. 6, Ascocoryne sarcoides (Jacq.) Groves & Wilson. DACRYMYCETACEAE. 8, Dacrymyces stillatus Nees. From Berkeley (1860).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2008 onwards. The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
