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

Summary:
{See also Otidea Table.} Otidea onotica is characterized by a comparatively large, spoon-shaped to ear-shaped fruitbody that is ochraceous yellow to yellow brown, usually with pink to rose tints, dots, or stains on the fresh inner spore-bearing surface, a short whitish base, growth in coniferous or hardwood forests, and microscopic characters including the spore dimensions.

It is found in WA, OR, ID, CA, and CO, (Larsen), MI and NH, (Kanouse), WA, OR, MI, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, (Olariaga(1)). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia and at the Pacific Forestry Centre.

Upper surface:
(2)4-6cm wide, (more when expanded), (3)5-10cm high, usually spoon-shaped or like an elongated ear (erect with one side open or split), margin inrolled at first; "ochraceous to dull orange to orange-buff or yellowish, often with a pinkish or rosy tint when fresh"; smooth, (Arora), 1-4(6)cm wide, 6-10cm tall, spoon-shaped to ear-shaped, pale yellow with touches of pink-apricot to rose, (colors not obvious in dried specimens), margin even, (Castellano), 5-6cm wide (wider if expanded), 6-10cm high, elongate, typically spoon-shaped or ear-shaped, margin involute, divided to base on one side; "pinkish cinnamon," "ochraceous buff" to "apricot buff" with tints of rose that are strongly indicated even in dried specimens, (Kanouse), ochraceous tinged with pink, becoming deeper in color as it dries out (Lincoff), pale orange to orange, often with pink tinge (Hansen), up to 6cm wide and 10cm high, soon becoming irregular and ear-shaped; somewhat ochraceous but delicately flushed with pink, the pink tint becoming more pronounced when dried, (Dennis)

Flesh:
thin, brittle; pallid, (Arora), thin; white, (Dennis)

Underside:
colored as interior but without pinkish tinge; often slightly scurfy, (Arora), exterior pale brown-orange to dull yellow (Castellano), externally "ochraceous orange", "cinnamon", "orange-buff" (dry), (Kanouse), at first almost the same color as interior, then clearly ochreous, (Lincoff), dark orange; velvety, (Hansen), ochraceous, sometimes flushed slightly with pink but drying ochraceous; finely scurfy, (Dennis)

Stem:
"whitish, narrowed, hairy or downy base that arises from a litter-binding mycelium", (Arora), "substipitate to short stipitate", irregular, covered with white to cream hyphae, (Castellano), substipitate to stipitate, arising from a mass of debris held together with mycelium, base white tomentose, (Kanouse), short, pubescent, yellowish white, (Hansen), white at base (Dennis), with or without stem, when present 1.3-2.7cm x 0.4-1.4cm, basal tomentum and mycelium abundant, whitish to light yellow, (Olariaga)

Odor:
none in particular (Lincoff)

Taste:
none in particular (Lincoff)

Microscopic:
spores 12-14 x 6-8 microns, elliptic, smooth, with 2 oil droplets; paraphyses strongly hooked, (Arora), spores (9)11-12(13) x (5.5)6(8.5) microns, smooth, with 2 oil droplets; asci 8-spored, inamyloid; paraphyses slender, colorless, typically strongly curved at tip, (Castellano), spores 12-14 x 6-7(8) microns, elliptic, smooth, colorless or colored faintly yellowish, with 2 droplets, obliquely 1-seriate; asci 160-200 x 9-11 microns, inamyloid; paraphyses filiform, usually strongly hooked, frequently forked in lower part, (Kanouse), 11-14 x 6-7.5 microns (Hansen), spores (10)12-13 x 5-6 microns, rather broadly elliptic, with 2 oil drops; asci up to 250 x 10 microns; paraphyses slender 3 microns thick, curved at tip, (Dennis), spores (11)12-13.5(14) x (5.5)6-7 microns, elliptic to broadly elliptic, smooth, colorless, inequilateral, with two large droplets; asci 138-233 x 9.5-12 microns; paraphyses "curved to hooked, of the same width or slightly broader at apices", 2.5-4.5 microns wide, "without notches or rarely with a slightly swollen area on the underside", when fresh containing small, refractive, light yellow droplets, when dried colorless to pale yellow droplets; external surface with conic warts 85-105 microns high, "formed by short, fasciculate hyphoid hairs, of 2-3 subglobose to elongated cells, constricted at septa", 11-14 microns wide; resinous exudates on exterior abundant, yellow, dissolving into amber drops in Melzer''s reagent; basal mycelium turning yellow in KOH, (Olariaga(1))