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Species Information
Summary:
Not available
Fruiting body: up to 2cm tall, unbranched, clavate [club-shaped]; creamy to fleshy cream or straw-orange when fresh, dull ochraceous orange when dry, then usually with a small white spot at the top like a cap, (Petersen(27)), 0.7-1.2cm x 0.1-0.2cm, simple, one seen with four little prongs, clavate [club-shaped] to nearly cylindric, "the usually thickened tip rounded or abruptly pointed", tapering downward to short, poorly defined stem; fruitbody watery ochraceous to dull orange, fading downward to the whitish stem; sterile tip may be covered with crystals when dried, (Coker), yellow drying orange (Peck in Corner), pinkish cinnamon in upper part, paler in lower part to the whitish base (Burt in Corner)
Flesh: solid [not hollow], pliable, toughish, watery, "cracking but not snapping when bent double"; colored as surface, (Coker)
Stem: 0.2-0.25cm long, poorly defined, round in cross-section, slightly incrassated [thickened] at the base; whitish, somewhat translucent; bald, (Coker)
Odor: none (Coker)
Taste: slightly mouldy (Coker)
Microscopic: spores 8-12 x 2.5-3.5 microns, elliptic to narrowly oval, smooth, thin-walled, without droplets; basidia 4-spored, very short, 7-20 x 4-7 microns, with basal clamp connection, sterigmata up to 7 microns long, spindly and slightly incurved; tortuous sterile tips "protrude from the young hymenium and among the basidia"; subhymenial hyphae parallel to context hyphae, thin-walled, "bearing clamp connections throughout, producing basidia as side branches"; context hyphae "somewhat parallel, loosely arranged toward the apex of the fruiting body, not agglutinated", short-celled, 10-90 x 2-5 microns, thin-walled to slightly thick-walled, branching and anastomoses abundant, (Petersen(27)), spores 8-11 x 2-3 microns, narrowly elliptic, slightly curved, smooth, white, (Coker), basidia 25-35 x 6-8 microns (Donk in Corner), spores 8-11 x 2-3 microns, without droplets or according to Donk one to a few droplets; basidia 2-4-spored, sterigmata 3-5 microns long; hyphae 2-7.5(11) microns wide, with clamp connections, (Corner)
Spore Deposit: white (Petersen(27))
Habitat / Range
gregarious in extensive colonies on bare earth covered with algae and moss protonemata, (Coker), terrestrial [on the ground], associated with algae or moss protonemata, (Petersen(27))
Similar Species
Multiclavula mucida grows on wood. Multiclavula corynoides (Peck) R.H. Petersen was thought by Corner(3) to be only the better developed state of Multiclavula vernalis, but they are kept separate by Petersen(27) and Brodo(1). Corner(3) places a collection under C. vernalis from Washington with spores 7-9 x 2.5-2.7 microns (fitting with C. corynoides), but with a small, simple fruitbody and 4-spored basidia (as in C. vernalis). Brodo(1) says that M. vernalis is known only from the East (of North America). The two species are differentiated by Brodo(1) saying that the fruitbodies of M. corynoides "are rather hard and brittle when dry, usually somewhat translucent toward the base, at least when fresh", while those of M. vernalis "are stouter, fleshier, opaque throughout, and usually larger". Petersen(27) uses different features: M. vernalis is differentiated in the key by the sterigmata being strictly four or rarely less, whereas M. corynoides commonly has more than 4 sterigmata. (Petersen(27)). The key sections in Petersen(27) are also differentiated by color but distinction between cream to fleshy cream or straw-orange drying dull ochraceous orange for M. vernalis, and pale yellowish to straw or pinkish shades for M. corynoides would not seem easy to make. McCune(2) separate them as follows: Multiclavula corynoides has spores 5.6-8.5 x 2.1-3.5 microns, 4-6 sterigmata, fruitbodies "simple or with a hint of branching", 1-2.5cm high, "pale yellowish to straw or with pinkish shades, almost translucent, at least near the base, the tip often whitish when dry", whereas Multiclavula vernalis has spores 8-12 x 2.5-3.5 microns, 4 sterigmata, fruitbodies simple, to 2(2.7)cm high, "cream to fleshy cream or straw orange when fresh, dull ochraceous orange when dry, the tip often with a small white spot". They also comment "Petersen [1967] separated M. corynoides from M. vernalis partly on the basis of the number of sterigmata. I find this a difficult character; at least partly because the sterigmata are often very small and easily collapsed. He also separated these by basidiocarp color, but the colors appear to overlap". (McCune(2), with Latin italicized.) A further controversy involves Clavaria mucida var. rosea Bres. Corner(2) mentions a report from Oregon by Doty with spores 7-7.5 x 2-3 microns, commenting that Doty is the only recent author to report it growing on the ground, and that var. rosea is possibly a form of Clavulinopsis vernalis. Petersen(27) on the other hand reduces Clavaria mucida var. rosea Sacc. to a synonym of Multiclavula corynoides.
