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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) resupinate growth on decayed wood, especially of conifers, 2) a cream to pale ochraceous fruitbody that is soft and membranous-waxy, with a smooth to finely tuberculate surface that is bristly under 50x lens from cystidia, the margin indistinct and pruinose when young, more distinct when old, 3) spores that are elliptic to nearly round, smooth, inamyloid, and colorless, 4) cystidia that are numerous, hypha-like, cyanophilic, with slightly thickened walls, with one or several clamped septa along the length, with constrictions and enlargements along the length, blunt or with a slight head at the end that usually has resinous encrustation, and 5) a monomitic hyphal system, the hyphae cyanophilic, with clamp connections.
Hyphodontia pallidula has been found in BC, OR, MB, NB, NS, ON, PQ, AZ, CA, CO, IL, MI, MN, NC, NM, NY, PA, TN, VT, and WI, (Ginns). It has been found in BC, MT, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, China, and Taiwan, (Langer), and Switzerland (Breitenbach). It is frequent in conifer forests in all parts of Scandinavia (Eriksson).
Fruiting body: resupinate, effused [spread out], adnate [firmly attached], thin (about 0.01-0.02cm thick), "at first porose then continuous"; "creamish white to pale ochraceous"; "generally smooth to the naked eye but mostly finely tuberculate" and under 50x lens finely pilose from projecting cystidia; "margin varying, in young fruitbodies indeterminate and pruinose but when old often determinate and fertile throughout", (Eriksson), resupinate, "appressed tightly to substrate but easily detached", forming thin, membranous-waxy patches several centimeters across, consistency soft; cream to ocherish; "smooth to punctate with fine warts, dull, farinose"; margin distinctly bounded, also diffuse when young, (Breitenbach), spore deposit white (Buczacki)
Microscopic: SPORES 3.5-4.5(5.5) x 2-2.5(3) microns, elliptic, oval, or nearly round, smooth, thin-walled, normally with one droplet; BASIDIA 4-spored, clavate at first, then subcylindric, "with suburniform constriction, walls often slightly thickened in the basal part", 10-18 x 3-4.5 microns, with basal clamp connection; CYSTIDIA numerous, 80-120 x 4-6 microns, hyphoid, cyanophilic, with slightly thickened walls, with one or several clamped septa, often with constrictions and also some spherical enlargements, "apically obtuse or somewhat capitate", "apical head usually with resinous encrustation"; HYPHAE monomitic, 2-3 microns wide, cyanophilic, thin-walled, with clamp connections, "richly branched in the subiculum, subhymenial hyphae denser and thinner", (Eriksson), SPORES 3.5-4 x 2-2.5(3) microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, some with droplets; BASIDIA 4-spored, 10-17 x 2.5-3.5 microns, narrowly clavate, with basal clamp connection; SEPTOCYSTIDIA up to 100 x 4-5 microns, cylindric, +/- thick-walled, cyanophilic, with clamped septa along their length, "sometimes constricted and moniliform", projecting beyond the hymenium, tips obtuse to capitate, according to the literature also sometimes encrusted; HYPHAE monomitic, 2-4 microns wide, septa with clamp connections, (Breitenbach)
Habitat / Range
on decayed wood, especially of conifers; more often on barkless wood than on bark, and also often found on manufactured wood such as old fences, (Eriksson), on rotten conifer wood, according to the literature rarely also on hardwood; summer to fall, (Breitenbach), on Abies (fir), Alnus (alder), Betula (birch), Larix (larch), Picea (spruce), Pinus (pine), Populus, Pseudotsuga (Douglas-fir), Salix (willow), Thuja, Tsuga (hemlock); on bark; "bark and wood of fallen decaying trunk; rotten wood; decayed stem; log; exposed root; associated with a white rot", (Ginns), all year; also rarely on old polypore fruitbodies, (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Hyphodontia alutaria 1) has a color when mature that is more vividly ochraceous, 2) has a more or less grandinioid surface, 3) has spores that are larger and more rounded (about 5 microns long instead of 4 microns long), 4) has numerous lagenocystidia (none or only a few in H. pallidula) and 5) has larger projecting cystidia, (Eriksson).
