Erythricium laetum (P. Karst.) J. Erikss. & Hjortstam
No common name
Corticiaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
No common name
Corticiaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) a bright rose red, loosely attached, resupinate fruitbody with a smooth to wrinkled surface and a white margin, 2) growth on decaying hardwood and surrounding area, often near melting snowbanks, and 3) microscopic characters. The description is derived from Eriksson(3) except where noted.
Microscopic:
SPORES 11-13(15) x 6-7.5 microns, mainly elliptic, but varying in shape (oval to oblong), with thickened walls and conspicuous apiculus, spore wall cyanophilic, "The color of the living spore is probably red."; BASIDIA 4-spored, 35-50 x 8-12 microns, sterigmata curved and a few apically swollen, basidia "varying in shape, clavate, sinuose or somewhat constricted, often basally widened to a suburniform shape"; CYSTIDIA none; HYPHAE monomitic, "but hyphae varying in nature in different parts of the fruitbody", in subhymenium, hyphae 2.5-3 microns wide, densely interwoven into a ceraceous [waxy] context, thin-walled, the rest of the hyphae forming the main part of the fruitbody wide (up to 10 microns or even 15 microns wide), "short-celled and branched into a loose context", the hyphal walls somewhat thickened, still more thick-walled are "the straight hyphae that penetrate the context and are mainly found in the margin and next to the substrate", these about 4-9 microns wide, with sparse septa and branchings; anastomoses frequent in all parts of the context; clamp connections absent throughout
Notes:
The distribution in North America includes MI, MT, ND, and NY, (Ginns(5)). It is found also in WA (J. Ginns, pers. comm.). It has been found in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, (Eriksson). There is a BC collection by O. Ceska at the University of British Columbia.
Habitat and Range
Habitat
on decayed wood and branches of hardwoods, but often growing out on dead leaves, wet soil, and so on, "belongs to the rich, moist biotypes with deciduous trees and herbs on mouldy soil", mostly in late fall, winter, and spring, "apparently active fruitbodies can be found under snow-cover", (Eriksson, for Europe), on Alnus sp., A. tenuifolia, Betula sp., B. populifolia, Populus sp., mosses, (Ginns(5)), often but not invariably found near receding snowbanks, (J. Ginns, pers. comm.), including large dead herbaceous stems; fall, winter, spring, (Buczacki)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Scleroderma arenicola Zeller