Specimen #2 Coral Fungus

Figure 1: Lentaria byssiseda at Chagrin Reservation; mycelial threads visible.

Name: Lentaria byssiseda
Family: Clavariaceae
Collection Date: September 12, 2011
Habitat: Shaded woods on damp ground, near tree
Location: South Chagrin Reservation
Description: Profusely branching white coral fungus, relatively small and tough, mycelial threads going into ground.
Collector: Taylor Summerfield

Key used: Arora, David, 1986. Mushrooms Demystified, 2nd Edition, Ten Speed Press, New York, New York.


Key Steps: Key to the Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi
1. Spores produced on mother cells called basidia; fruiting body variously shaped (see pp.52-54)
...p.53; Fruiting body erect, unbranched (clublike) or profusely branched from a common base or "trunk" (coral-like); cap absent; spores borne on the smooth to slightly wrinkled surfaces of the upright clubs or branches...Coral and Club Fungi, p. 630


Key to Clavariaceae, p. 630:
1. Fruiting body profusely branched from a stalk or common base...4
4. Common; fruiting body not small and tough with very thin, almost hairlike branches, brown to grayish-brown to dark brown or purple-brown; growing on twigs, needles, etc.; rare (mostly tropical)...5
5. Fruiting body not consisting of numerous flattened, wavy, ribbonlike, or leafy segments or lobes arising from a common base; rather tough; overall color white to creamy, yellowish, or tan; growing near or at the bases of trees and stumps...7
7. Fruiting body not bright yellow to orange; spore print white or if not then branches usually viscid; spores smooth; typically growing on wood...8
8. Branch tips not crownlike (in the form of small fringed cups); spore print white; growing on wood...9
9. Fruiting body not bright yellow to orange when fresh and small (typically 2-7cm high)...11
11. Branches not tough, usually flattened, grayish-brown to dark brown to purple-brown (but tips often pallid when growing); odor typically garliclike or fetid...12
12. Spore print creamy to yellow, tan, yellow-orange, or ochraceous (rarely white); fruiting body medium-sized to fairly large, often brightly colored, or if dull colored then usually with a large fleshy base (stalk); fertile surfaces staining greenish to blue in ferrous sulfate...Ramaria, p.645


Key to Ramaria, p. 646:
1. growing on ground (or occasionally on very rotten wood)...5
5. Fruiting body pliant and rather tough, small or medium-sized (rarely taller than 10cm); stalk or "trunk" slender to practically absent, with a mat of conspicuous white mycelial threads attached to the base and/or permeating the substrate...6
6. Spore print whitish; fruiting body creamy to pinkish-tan to yellowish, sometimes with greenish tips; often found near wood or lignin-rich humus...Lentaria byssiseda and L. pinicola (see Ramaria stricta, p. 648)


Links:
http://www.wisconsinmushrooms.com/Lentariabyssiseda.html
http://mushroomobserver.org/name/show_name?_js=on&_new=true&id=1055
http://www.globalspecies.org/ntaxa/1813319
http://www.mycokey.com/MycoKeySolidState/species/Lentaria_byssiseda.html