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Species Information
Summary: Features include pale apricot to pinkish yellow or pinkish buff fruiting bodies, single to several on branching stem, growing on ground, with weakly amyloid spores and clamp connections. The description is derived from Gilbertson(1) except where noted. Ginns(1) says that "Although 10 collections of Albatrellus flettii were seen from Washington, no confirmed specimens of Albatrellus confluens are known from the state, although it is reported by Gilbertson and Ryvarden (1986). Perhaps in western North America, Albatrellus flettii is more common than Albatrellus confluens, or perhaps in this area there is only one species, which differs from Albatrellus confluens elsewhere in having the pileus when young with blue tints, and when old, either lacking the blue or mottled with blue. The rare morphological differences in basidiomes indicate that these are sister species and may be subspecies.". One implication is that at least some reports of A. confluens in western North America may have been based on faded fruitbodies of A. flettii. Audet(1) supported the use of the name Albatrellopsis confluens (Alb. & Schwein.) Teixeira, Boletim do Instituto de Botanica, Sao Paulo 8: 21 (1993). The online Species Fungorum, accessed February 3, 2019, maintained the Albatrellus confluens name as current, despite accepting the Albatrellopsis name for the similar (and according to Audet(1) closely related) Albatrellus flettii.
The distribution includes BC, WA, OR, ID, also PQ, AL, AZ, CA, CO, KY, MA, ME, MT, NC, NJ, NM, NY, SC, TN, UT, VT, WV, circumglobal, (Gilbertson), Europe, Asia, (Breitenbach)
Cap: up to 11cm, circular to fan-shaped or lobed and contorted, pinkish buff or sometimes with gray or bluish tints when fresh, becoming salmon pink on drying, not zoned; bald, smooth or becoming areolate [cracked like dried mud], drying rugose [wrinkled]
Flesh: up to 2cm thick near stem, soft and fleshy when fresh, drying fissile to hard and resinous; "cream colored, drying pale pinkish tan with a darker reddish zone above the tubes"
Pores: 3-5 per mm, circular to angular, with thick fringed walls that become thin and torn; cream when fresh, slowly becoming salmon pink after drying; tube layer up to 0.5cm thick, becoming salmon pink on drying
Stem: up to 8.5cm x 2cm, central to lateral, single or confluent; cream to pinkish buff when fresh, drying salmon pink; bald, becoming rugose [wrinkled] on drying
Odor: pleasant, often aromatic (Gilbertson), pleasant, even fragrant, (Miller)
Microscopic: spores 4-5 x 2.5-3.5 microns, oval to elliptic, smooth, weakly amyloid, colorless, with slightly thickened walls; basidia 4-spored, 20-25 x 6-7.5 microns, clavate, often bent sharply at base, with basal clamp connection; cystidia absent; hyphae monomitic, hyphae of context highly irregular and variable in diameter, 4-50 microns wide, colorless in KOH, thin-walled, with frequent branching, with simple septa and also frequent conspicuous clamp connections, hyphae of trama 3-5 microns, thin-walled with clamp connections, arranged parallel and turning sharply at apex to give rise to basidia, gloeoplerous hyphae also present, 4-18 microns wide, appearing refractive in Melzer''s reagent, contorted with bulbous swellings
Spore Deposit: white (Miller)
Habitat / Range
annual; single to several on a branched stem, on soil in coniferous forest, (Gilbertson), fruiting in summer and fall (Miller)
Similar Species
Albatrellopsis flettii has prominent blue tints at least when young, but when mature can be colored as A. confluens, (Ginns(28), see also under NOTES); Albatrellus ovinus is white to gray-brown, stains yellow, and has inamyloid spores and lacks clamp connections; Albatrellus avellaneus is pale orange to tan with dark fine scales, has inamyloid spores, and lacks clamp connections
