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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) growth on the bark of living oaks and other hardwoods, 2) cushion-shaped to discoid or confluent fruitbodies that are whitish, with a pruinose surface that is continuous to rarely cracked, 3) clearly marked margins that are free to slightly raised, 4) an undersurface that is dark-colored and smooth, 5) spores that are round to somewhat oval, smooth to slightly roughened, and inamyloid, 6) a hymenium composed of abundant, encrusted dendrophyses and interspersed basidia, but absent pseudocystidia, and 7) a monomitic hyphal system, the hyphae obscured by abundant crystallization.
Dendrothele candida is found in BC, OR, ON, CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, MO, NC, NH, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WV, (Ginns), and also Mexico and Jamaica, (Burt).
Fruiting body: pulvinate [cushion-shaped] to discoid, at first separate and 0.1-0.3cm across, readily confluent into patches up 2-3cm across; chalk-white to ivory-white; continuous to rarely rimose [cracked] on drying; texture pruinose-pulverulent [appearing powdery] to compact-crustulose; annual and 0.02-0.05cm thick in cross-section, or perennial attaining a thickness of 0.08-0.3cm in cross-section; margins determinate [clearly marked], thick, free to slightly raised; abhymenial surface dark-colored, smooth; context pallid, (Lemke), resupinate, adnate, at first convex and circular, soon expanded and flattened, following the inequality of the bark, usually 0.3-0.6cm across, sometimes 1-2cm across; in structure 0.08cm thick; white; pruinose; margin thick, entire, blackening underneath, (Burt)
Microscopic: SPORES (13)15-20(22) x (11)13-16(20) microns, round to suboval, apiculate, appearing smooth to roughened in Melzer''s reagent, inamyloid, walls partially thickened; catahymenium "composed of abundant, incrusted dendrophyses and basidial elements"; BASIDIA 4-spored, (45)50-70 x (11)13.5-15.5(16) microns, flexuous-clavate, sterigmata up to 14 microns long; DENDROPHYSES 2-3 microns wide at base, encrusted, delicate but readily discerned, with irregular and tapering branches at the apex; pseudocystidia not present; CONTEXT, on sectioning appearing somewhat stratified in well-developed specimens, monomitic, obscured by abundant crystallization, hyphae 2-3 microns wide, "branched, thin-walled, simple-septate, irregular", BASAL HYPHAE up to 4 microns wide with partially thickened walls, generative, (Lemke), SPORES 15-17 x 11-14 microns, subglobose [nearly round], smooth, colorless; hymenium composed of clavate BASIDIA 45-60 x 10-15 microns and hyphal PARAPHYSES that are flexuous [wavy], colorless, thin-walled, encrusted, with tips bushy, branched in somewhat corymbose fashion, branches 2-3 microns wide under their encrustation, "not moniliform and noteworthy, as are the hyphae, by the large amount of crystalline matter attached to them", often by only a corner or small end of the crystal; beneath hymenium somewhat stratose, composed of hyphae that are 2-3 microns wide (under the heavy encrustation), "densely arranged, suberect, interwoven", much of the encrusting matter is large, angular, crystalline grains, (Burt)
Habitat / Range
bark of live trees, especially oaks; on Acer macrophyllum (Bigleaf Maple), Acer rubrum (Red Maple), Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple), Carya illinoensis (Pecan), Castanea sp. (chestnut), Fraxinus americana (White Ash), Notholithocarpus densiflorus (Tanoak), Quercus alba (White Oak), Q. chrysolepis (Canyon Live Oak), Q. falcata (Southern Red Oak), Q. garryana (Oregon White Oak), Q. nigra (Water Oak), Q. prinus (Chestnut Oak), Q. rubra (Red Oak), Q. stellata (Post Oak), Q. velutina (Black Oak), Ulmus alata (Winged Elm), (Ginns), in North America primarily on the bark of living Quercus, also on other hardwoods, in Ontario only on Acer, (Lemke), on trunks of living Quercus, rarely on Fraxinus and Acer; August to January, (Burt)
Similar Species
Dendrothele nivosa has pseudocystidia and the host affinity is different (Lemke). D. nivosa has thinner and more elongated fruitbodies that are not at all stratose within, encrusting matter not in the form of large, angular, crystalline grains, a margin with no tendency to be free nor blackening on underside, and common occurrence on bark of living juniper, (Burt). Dendrothele macrodens is generally thinner, with the margins tightly attached, (Lemke).
