Summary:
Clavariadelphus spp. are treated more fully under the Clubs category. Many of them can have vein-like patterns. This species is also included in the Clubs category. Features of Clavariadelphus truncatus include a club-shaped fruiting body that is pinkish cinnamon to lavender-brown when mature with apex yellow-orange, orange or reddish, the blunt apex becoming truncate, excavated, or perforated (umbonate in var. umbonatus), cherry red to fire-engine red reaction of surface to KOH, dark green tissue reaction to FeCl3, and microscopic characters. C. truncatus has been regarded by some authors as a mature form of C. pistillaris (of eastern North America, Europe, and Asia) in which the top of the fruitbody has become truncate, but the two differ in the following: 1) C. pistillaris is pale ochraceous to brownish, while C. truncatus has the colors given above, 2) C. pistillaris tastes bitter whereas C. truncatus tastes sweet, 3) the apex of C. pistillaris is spore-bearing, but the apex of C. truncatus is sterile, 4) C. pistillaris is not stained on the surface by KOH and C. truncatus stains cherry red to fire-engine red on the surface, 5) C. pistillaris has spores 10.5-14 x 6-7.5 microns, whereas C. truncatus has smaller spores 9.5-13 x 5.5-7 microns, 6) C. pistillaris occurs in hardwood forests in association with beech, while C. truncatus occurs in coniferous forest. In the umbonate variety, C. truncatus var. umbonatus (Peck), the apex instead of being "initially broadly obtuse, becoming truncate, excavate or perforate at maturity" as in var. truncatus, is "clavate-umbonate to truncate-umbonate at maturity, not becoming excavate or perforate". In another variety, C. truncatus var. lovejoy (Wells & Kempton) Corner, the apex of the fruitbody is bright red, and spores measure 9.5-12.5 x 4.5-6.5 microns.

Chemical Reactions:
KOH cherry red to fire engine red reaction; tissue dark green in FeCl3, (Methven)

Odor:
not distinctive (Methven), pleasant (Miller)

Taste:
sweet (Methven), mild to sweetish, or bittersweet, (Arora), not distinct (Castellano), sweet (Miller)

Microscopic:
spores 9.5-13.5 x 5.5-7 microns, broadly elliptic, broadly ovate or amygdaliform [almond-shaped], smooth, inamyloid, pale yellow in KOH, thin-walled, contents multiguttulate and refringent to aguttulate and amorphous; basidia (2-)4-spored, 80-110 x 8-12 microns, clavate, clamped, sterigmata 6.5-9.5 microns long; leptocystidia scattered and scarcely projecting, 40-70 x 2.5-5 microns, "cylindric to narrowly clavate, at times apically or subapically branched", walls thin and smooth, contents amorphous, pale yellow in KOH, clamp connections uninflated; hymenium limited to the sides of the fruitbody (apical pellis a palisade of basidia, leptocystidia, and sterile elements which are "30-65 x 4-9.5 microns, subcylindric, clavate or ventricose, at times apically or subapically branched", walls thin and smooth, contents amorphous, pale yellow in KOH, clamp connections uninflated, basidia and leptocystidia as described above); subhymenium rudimentary; hyphae of trama 3-12 microns wide, "more or less parallel to longitudinally interwoven basally, more loosely interwoven upward, radially interwoven beneath the subhymenium, uninflated, inflated (-16 microns)or broadly undulate, branched", walls thin or irregularly thickened to 1 micron wide, smooth, contents amorphous, pale yellow in KOH, clamp connections uninflated or inflated (-16 microns), sometimes medallion or ampulliform; gloeoplerous hyphae 2.5-5 microns wide, "arising from generative hyphae at clamp connections, scattered throughout the trama, more abundant downward, uninflated, inflated (-8 microns) or strangulated, branched", walls thin and smooth, contents subopallescent, pale yellow in KOH, refractive under phase contrast, clamp connections uninflated or inflated (-12 microns), sometimes medallion or ampulliform, (Methven)

Spore Deposit:
white in deposit, gradually yellowing during storage, (Methven), pale orange-red (Miller)

Notes:
The distribution of C. truncatus var. truncatus includes BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, NS, ON, PQ, YT, AK, AZ, CA, CO, KY, MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MT, NM, NY, OH, PA, TN, UT, VA, WI, Mexico, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, China, and India, (Methven). C. truncatus var. umbonatus (Peck) Methven occurs at least in ID, OR, NY, and Mexico. C. truncatus var. lovejoy occurs at least in CO and WY.

EDIBILITY

delicious when sweet (Arora), edible, but slightly laxative in quantity, the sugary flavor is due to a large amount of mannitol, (Lincoff(1))

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Clavaria truncata Quel.
Scleroderma flavidum Ellis & Everh.