|
| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
‘Coral Fungi’, ‘Fairy Clubs’.
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; compound; clustered, or solitary; branched (“ramarioid”); medium sized to large (mostly), or very large; 3–15(–25) cm high; brightly pigmented (commonly), or not brightly pigmented; orange to yellow (sometimes), or white or whitish to cream or yellowish, or buff to light brown (often tan-coloured or reddening). The hymenium ribbed, or smooth. Cystidia absent. The basidia ‘unmodified’. The basidiospores yellow-brown (never white?); ornamented.
The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The hyphae with dolipore septa; monomitic. The generative hyphae inflated.
Chemical reactions. The context hyphae not xanthochroic; green positive to ferric chloride.
Ecology. Saprophytic. The fruit-bodies borne on the ground and on dead wood. Found in coniferous woodland, in broad-leaved woodland, and in mixed woodland (on decaying stumps, buried branches, conifer needles, etc.).
Representation in Britain and Ireland. 37 species in Britain; Gautieria, Kavinia, Ramaria, Ramaricium.
World representation. 16 species; genera 6. “Widespread”.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Phallales (i.e., cf. the 2004 BMS Check list).
Illustrations. • Ramaria botrytis, eumorpha, flava, formosa, stricta (LH). RMARIACEAE. 1, Ramaria eumorpha; 2, Ramaria stricta; 3, Ramaria botrytis; 4, Ramaria formosa; 5, Ramaria flava. Sunesen & Dahlstrøm, in Lange & Hora (1965). • Ramaria stricta (Berkeley). RAMARIACEAE. 5, Ramaria stricta (Pers.) Quél.). AURICULARIACEAE. 1, Auricularia mesenterica (Dicks.) Pers.; 7, Auricularia auricula-judae (Jew's Ear). CLAVARIACEAE. 2, Clavaria amethystina (Bull.) Donk.; 4, Clavulinopsis umbrinella (Sacc.) Corner. CLAVULINACEAE. 3, Clavulina rugosa (Bull.) J. Schrot. 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’.
