E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Ramaria acrisiccescens has 1) medium to large fruitbodies, usually taller than wide, the mature fruitbodies with nearly parallel very elongated branches, 2) branches that are pale yellowish brown to pale orangish brown, the lower branches turning brownish on bruising, 3) branch tips variously colored: like the branches, pallid, or with a pinkish or purplish cast when young, 4) a stem that is single or somewhat bundled, and white but with the superficial hyphae turning brown, 5) spores that are wide and warted, and 6) hyphae lacking clamp connections. Ramaria acrisiccescens is the only whitish Ramaria in Pacific Northwest without clamp connections (Trudell(4)).

R. acrisiccescens is found at least in WA, (Marr). It is a common fall coral in the Pacific Northwest (Ammirati). There are collections from WA, OR, and CA at Oregon State University. There is one collection from BC at the University of British Columbia and it likely to be found in BC regardless of whether the unknown identifier was correct. Siegel(3) says it has been reported from two BC sites.

Fruiting body:
5-29cm tall, 1.5-18cm across, generally taller than wide, stem single or subfasciculate, mature fruitbody with subparallel, very elongated branches, branching up to 9 times from stem, dichotomous, axils acute to narrowly U-shaped; branches slender, 0.1-1.2cm wide, internodes frequently up to 3cm long, occasionally up to 7cm, bifid, antlered to plurinodulose near apices, apices mostly rounded, (Marr)

Flesh:
fleshy-fibrous when fresh, brittle and very chalky-friable when dried; brownish white, (Marr)

Branch color:
pale yellowish brown to pale orangish brown, lower branches turning brownish on bruising, tips variously colored: like branches, pallid, or with pinkish or purplish cast when young, (Scates-Barnhart), slightly more brown than ''pale yellow'' or ''pale orange'', terminal branches the most pallid part of the fruitbody, occasionally very faint pinkish tint present; superficial hyphae of lower branches turning ''brown'', (Marr), whitish to cream, (Trudell)

Stem:
1.5-9cm x 1-3cm, often deeply buried, single or subfasciculate, steeply tapered, slender; white, superficial hyphae turning ''brown''; well defined white basal tomentum usually present, (Marr)

Chemical Reactions:
flesh of stem inamyloid (Marr), ferric sulphate in water negative with stem flesh, (Exeter(3))

Odor:
faintly musty sweet to bean-like, (Marr)

Taste:
not distinctive or slightly acid when fresh, drying with a pronounced bitterish acid taste, (Marr), mild to +/- acrid [peppery] when fresh, cooking or drying with pronounced bitterish-acid taste, (Scates-Barnhart)

Microscopic:
spores 8-14 x 4-6 microns, average 10.1 x 4.9 microns, finely warty, hyphae without clamp connections, (Exeter(1)), spores 8-14 x 4-6 microns, subcylindric to elliptic with prominent lateral apiculus, with distinct, lobed, cyanophilic warts; basidia 1-spored to 4-spored, mostly 4-spored, 40-90 x 7-13 microns, clavate, without basal clamp connection; subhymenial hyphae 2-5 microns wide, interwoven, thin-walled, without clamp connections; context hyphae subparallel to interwoven in stem, parallel in branches, hyphae walls thin to moderately thick, 0.25-2 microns, surface smooth to slightly fluted, non-inflating in the peripheral contextual regions, highly inflated nearer the center (3-24 microns wide), ampulliform swellings near septa 10-20 microns wide, walls of the vesicles moderately to conspicuously ornamented; clamp connections absent; gloeoplerous hyphae abundant in stem, less common in branches, localized bulbous regions enlarging up to 13 microns wide, except for these areas 2.5-5 microns wide, (Marr)

Spore Deposit:
'grayish yellow''