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| Figure 1. Clavulina amethystina in its original habitat. It can usually be found in solitary, scattered, or in groups on ground in mixed woods and under conifers; widely distributed but mainly northern. |
Name: Clavulina amethystina
Family: Clavariaceae
Collection Date: September 13, 2011
Habitat: On wet, soggy dirt with some twigs scattered around. Underneath a large tree.
Location: South Chagrin Reservation in Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Description: Clavulina amethystina is a beautiful purple branched species; it is found occasionally in eastern North America. Fruiting body erect or somewhat spreading, profusely branched, 2-11 cm tall and broad. Branches often irregular in shape, often resulting in a somewhat tangled appearance; pallid soon becoming purplish; smooth or wrinkled to somewhat flattened; tips acute or blunt, often forked. Stalk present as a short, fleshy sterile base or “trunk;” colored like the branches, or often whitish at the very base. Flesh white, brittle; taste usually mild (Arora, 1979).
Collector: Cara Tompot
Key Used: Arora, D. (1979). Mushrooms Demystified. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
Keying Steps:
Key to the Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi
Basidiomycetes Pg 52.
Fruiting body erect, unbranched (club-like) 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:
1b. Fruiting body profusely branched from a stalk or common base.
4b.Not as above- (above: fruiting body 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.)); common.
5b. Not as above- (above: fruiting body 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 at or near the bases of trees and stumps.)
7b. Not as above- (above: fruiting body bright yellow to orange; spore print white, or if not then branches usually viscid; spores smooth; typically growing on wood.)
8a. Branch tips crownlike (in the form of small fringed cups); spore print white; growing on wood. Clavulina and Allies. P.640.
Key to Clavulina and Allies:
1b. Not as above- (above: growing on wood; branch tips usually crownlike); usually growing on ground.
2b. Not as above- (above: fruiting body tough and pliant, not white, typically with a mat of copious white mycelial threads at base or in surrounding humus); mycelial mat absent and/or fruiting body brittle.
3a. Fruiting body lavender to purple. Clavulina amethystina.
Links:
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| Figure 2. Clavulina amethystina. Note the fruiting body height at 5.5cm. |
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| Figure 3. Close up of Clavulina amethystina. Note the crownlike tips on the fruiting body. |
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