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

Gloeocystidiellum clavuligerum (Hoehn. & Litsch.) Nakasone
no common name
Stereaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi
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Distribution of Gloeocystidiellum clavuligerum
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Species Information

Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on hardwood, 2) a waxy to membranous fruitbody that is well attached, often layered, pale to distinctly yellow, becoming tan when old, and smooth or with small scattered warts, the margin indistinct, pruinose to mealy, and white to pallid, 3) spores that are elliptic to nearly round, warted (but sometimes appearing smooth), amyloid, and colorless, 4) basidia often in multiple layers, 5) gloeocystidia that are numerous, embedded, flask-shaped with elongated neck, or tubular to fusoid, sulfo-positive or not, often with secondary septa, and 6) a monomitic hyphal system, the hyphae with clamp connections.

Collections were examined from BC, OR, ON, PQ, AK, AZ, CO, CT, IL, LA, ME, MI, MN, MS, NM, NY, and WI, and it has also been reported from MA and WY, (Ginns).
Fruiting body:
effused [spread out], adnate [firmly attached], rather large (the pieces seen up to 10cm x 3cm and 0.009-0.026cm thick), crustose, often stratose [layered]; "pale yellow or pastel yellow, or some with a tan tint"; "smooth, cracked extensively in some specimens"; margin sparse, indistinct, 0.1(0.2)cm wide, white to pallid; "subiculum thin, white", (Ginns), annual, effused [spread out flat], sometimes occurring as small patches, up to 15cm x 4cm, 0.03-0.04cm thick, ceraceous [waxy] to membranous, adherent; "light buff" to "pinkish buff", older areas "light ochraceous-salmon" or "tawny-olive"; smooth with small scattered warts, often cracking; margin abrupt or gradually thinning out, colored as the spore-bearing surface, pruinose to farinaceous, (Nakasone), pale to distinctly yellow, becoming tan when old; often stratified with several basidial layers, subiculum very thin, (Stalpers)
Microscopic:
SPORES 3.8-4.8(5.0) x (2.6)2.8-3.2(3.4) microns, verrucose (sometimes appearing smooth), amyloid, colorless, thin-walled, with a small, blunt apiculus; BASIDIA 4-spored, 17-24 x 4 microns (but 30-35 microns long in one specimen), cylindric; GLOEOCYSTIDIA 40-75 x 6-12 microns (but 140-230 x 13-22 in the specimen with long basidia), typically flask-shaped with an elongated neck, "others tubular to fusoid, sulfo-positive in about one-third of the collections"; HYPHAE monomitic; subiculum "typically a very thin, indistinct layer next to the substrate", however as the fruitbodies thicken "a horizontally arranged hyphal layer develops over the surface of the current hymenium and it gives rise to the new basidial layer"; hyphae 2-3 microns wide, with clamp connection at each septum, colorless, inamyloid, and thin-walled, (Ginns(24)), SPORES 4.5-5.5(6) x 3.5-4(4.5) microns, elliptic to nearly round, asperulate, amyloid, colorless, acyanophilic, thin-walled; BASIDIA 4-spored, 25-30 x 5-6.5 microns, clavate, colorless, thin-walled, with clamp connection at base; PSEUDOCYSTIDIA numerous, arising in hymenium, embedded, (40)55-85(100) x 6-12(16) microns, lageniform to obclavate, colorless, thin-walled or walls slightly thickened at basal end, clamped at base, "blue-black in sulfobenzaldehyde, apex usually moniliform or constricted to form a bulb, often developing secondary septa"; "subhymenial trama thickening, consisting primarily of pseudocystidia, indistinct, compact hyphae, and numerous basidiospores"; HYPHAE monomitic, subiculum very thin, not well differentiated, SUBICULAR HYPHAE 2-4 microns wide, colorless, thin-walled, nodose-septate [septa with clamp connections], frequently branched, (Nakasone), SPORES 3.8-4.8(5) x (2.6) 2.8-3.5 microns, nearly round to ellipsoid, distinctly warty; BASIDIA 17-35 x 4-5 microns; GLOEOCYSTIDIA 40-75 x 6-12 microns, cylindric to fusiform, sometimes swollen at the base, sulfobenzaldehyde reaction +/-, no hyphidia; no gloeoplerous hyphae, GENERATIVE HYPHAE 2-3 microns wide, colorless, thin-walled, somewhat agglutinated, (Stalpers)

Habitat / Range

on barkless branches on the ground and logs, associated with a white rot of hardwoods, but reported once on Picea engelmannii (Engelmann Spruce) and once on Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir): on Acer macrophyllum (Bigleaf Maple), Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple), Alnus crispa (Green Alder), Alnus rubra (Red Alder), Corylus rostrata (Beaked Hazel), Fagus grandifolia (American Beech), Fraxinus nigra (Black Ash), Ostrya virginiana (Eastern Hophornbeam), Populus balsamifera (Balsam Poplar), P. tremuloides (Quaking Aspen), P. trichocarpa (Black Cottonwood), Quercus alba (White Oak), Tilia americana (American Basswood), Ulmus americana (American Elm), (Ginns), associated with a white rot of barkless hardwood slash and logs, rarely on coniferous wood, (Nakasone)

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Polyporus sulphurellus Peck
Polyporus xanthus Fr.

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Range and Status Information Links

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Related Databases

Species References

Ginns(24), Nakasone(6) (colors in quotation marks from Ridgway), Stalpers(3), Eriksson(3) (discussing some similar species)

References for the fungi

General References