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Species Information
Summary:
Not available
Fruiting body: 1.5-10cm tall and 0.2-1cm wide, simple, often somewhat flattened, fusiform [spindle-shaped], "or with rounded, blunt or truncate apex, or branched once with the axil lunate, and tips acute"; lemon yellow, golden yellow, yellow-ocher, orange-yellow, or bright orange in the spore-bearing area, tips discoloring to dirty yellow-ocher when old or when dried; rugulose [finely wrinkled], smooth to bald, (Petersen(4)), most western specimens tend toward the bright orange to orange-red, with somewhat darker tips at maturity, (Petersen(16)), 1.5-6.5(10)cm tall but usually about 3-4cm, 0.1-0.5(1)cm wide, unbranched or occasionally forked once, erect, cylindric or often somewhat flattened and/or twisted, tip acute; bright orange to yellow to yellow-ocher or in some forms orange-red, often duller as it fades or dries, tip often brownish when old or when dried; often grooved, (Arora)
Flesh: thin, somewhat pliant; pallid or yellowish, (Arora)
Stem: "always fading to clear white at the very base, often with a basal mycelial pad or small mat, also white", (Petersen(4)), extreme base whitish, (Arora)
Chemical Reactions: hymenium dingy greenish in FeSO4, yellow-green in 10% KOH, (Petersen(4))
Odor: none (Petersen(4))
Taste: none (Petersen(4))
Microscopic: spores 4.3-7 x 3.7-5 microns, "broadly ovate, ovate or rounded-triangular (irregularly bulbous in one form), smooth, slightly thick-walled", with one or rarely several droplets, with large very prominent long apiculus; basidia 4-spored, rarely 2-spored, 20-55 x 4-7.5 microns, clavate to elongate-clavate, with clamp connection, sterigmata up to 9 microns long; hymenial sterile elements hyphal, slender, undifferentiated, not projecting from the hymenial level; subhymenial hyphae 1.5-3 microns wide, tortuous, clamped; hyphae of context generally parallel, colorless to very pale yellow, of 2 widths: 1) up to 10 microns wide, slightly inflated, clamped, 2) up to 3 microns, interweaving with the wider hyphae and arising from them; some fruiting bodies have 2-spored basidia and lack clamp connections totally; a lemon yellow form collected in the Appalachian Mountains had contextual hyphae mostly without clamp connections, (Petersen(4)), "spores 4.5-7(9) x 3.5-5.5(6.5) microns, broadly elliptic to nearly round to triangular or pear-shaped, smooth, prominently apiculate", (Arora), spores 4-7 x 3.5-5 microns, rather variable broadly elliptic to nearly round, "with a prominent apiculus that sometimes gives them an almost triangular shape", (Trudell)
Spore Deposit: white (Arora)
Habitat / Range
growing "on deciduous or coniferous leaf mold or humus", (Petersen(4)), single, scattered, in groups, or tufted on mossy banks, wet soil, and woodland humus, fruiting in fall, winter, and spring, (Arora), late summer to fall (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Clavulinopsis fusiformis is not firmly established as a Pacific Northwest species. The following are differentiating features according to various authors. According to Arora it is taller (0.5-15cm) and bright yellow with round spores, (Arora). C. fusiformis is rarely collected in the Pacific Northwest: it has round, nearly round, or very broadly ovate spores, bright yellow color, and typically bundled habit, (Petersen). 1) C. fusiformis is yellow while C. laeticolor is usually some shade of orange, 2) both species can fruit in tufts, but clusters of C. fusiformis are more likely to be fused at the base, 3) C. laeticolor is usually mild in taste while C. fusiformis is typically bitter, 4) the two species react differently in KOH: according to Tylutki, a 10% KOH solution will turns the flesh of C. laeticolor yellowish-green to green, but has no effect on C. fusiformis [Tylutki actually says orange in KOH], and 5) spore shape differs, the spores of C. fusiformis spores being spherical, while those of C. laeticolor are nearly round to pyriform [pear-shaped], (MykoWeb). Calocera species are viscid and grow on wood, (Arora). Note that Clavulinopsis corniculata can occasionally be unbranched, and this might be suggested if fruitbodies are not clustered (Danny Miller, pers. comm.). Clavulinopsis helvola (Pers. ex Fr.) R.H. Petersen, which may occur in the Pacific Northwest (collection at Oregon State University), has bright yellow to orange yellow fruitbodies and angular-warty spores. Neolecta vitellina averages broader and has spores borne on asci rather than basidia, (Arora).
