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

Summary:
Clavulinopsis corniculata has 1) yellow to deep ocher fruitbodies that are usually repeatedly branched, often with incurved crescent-like tips at the ends of the branches, narrowing at the base which is white and somewhat rooting, 2) farinaceous odor, and 3) round or nearly round smooth spores.

Collections were examined from BC, WA, NF, ON, PQ, CA, IA, MI, NC, NH, PA, SC, TN, VA, Jamaica, Panama, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, France, Sweden, United Kingdom, and India, (Petersen(4)). A collection was examined from ID (Petersen(16)). It was reported from OR by Zeller, (Petersen(4)).

Fruiting body:
1-9cm high, stem part and individual branches 0.2-0.4cm wide, branches generally dichotomous, in 1-4 ranks, smooth, axils rounded to lunate, rarely acute but often slightly channeled below the axil, tips acute to subacute, (Petersen(4)), shapes include a range from cylindric with two or three branches near the tips (or even no branches) through profuse branching in a shape that is wider than tall, as well as cespitose variations of these, (Petersen(16)), 2-9cm wide and high, but usually 2-5cm wide and high, branched (sometimes sparingly) from common base or stem, branches smooth, mostly hollow, tips acute, (Arora)

Flesh:
rather tough, thin; whitish, (Arora), tough and firm (Phillips)

Branch color:
olive-ocher or ochraceous tan at the base of the branches, ocher to clear yellow toward the tips, (Petersen(4)), in Europe said to be egg-yellow, but this color not seen in North America, (Petersen(16)), bright yellow to yellow-orange or egg-yellow to deep ochraceous, sometimes fading when dry or when old to creamy buff, (Arora)

Stem:
stem part white at base, bald, narrowing to a somewhat rooting base, 0.5-6cm long, (Petersen(4)), 0.2-0.4cm thick, "colored like branches or duller, often with a coating of downy mycelium at base", (Arora)

Chemical Reactions:
spore-bearing surface gray-green in FeSO4 (Petersen(4))

Odor:
farinaceous to oily-farinaceous (Petersen), mild or farinaceous (Arora)

Taste:
farinaceous to oily-farinaceous (Petersen), mild or bitter (Arora)

Microscopic:
spores 4.3-7.2 x 4.3-7.2 microns, round or nearly round, smooth, slightly thick-walled, with one droplet (rarely multiguttulate), apiculus long and prominent; basidia 4-spored, rarely 2-spored, 40-80 x 3.5-7.5 microns, clavate to elongate-clavate, multiguttulate, the droplets yellowish microscopically, sterigmata 4-9 microns long, slightly incurved; subhymenial hyphae 1.5-3.5 microns wide, tortuous, with clamp connections, watery yellow microscopically, producing basidia in clusters; context hyphae 3.5-10 microns wide, generally parallel, scarcely inflated, colorless, with clamp connections throughout, (Petersen(4))

Spore Deposit:
white (Petersen(4))