Peniophora aurantiaca (Bres.) Hoehn. & Litsch.
no common name
Peniophoraceae

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

Introduction to the Macrofungi

Photograph

© Adolf Ceska     (Photo ID #18731)


Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Peniophora aurantiaca
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Species Information

Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on alder and willow, 2) an orange-red to pale orange fruitbody, with a distinct gray-whitish border that is fibrillose in young specimens, 3) large elliptic spores, 4) cystidia of 2 types: thick-walled encrusted metuloids and thin-walled sulfocystidia, 5) a monomitic hyphal system, the hyphae with clamp connections.
Microscopic:
SPORES 14-17 x 7.5-10 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, with droplets, colorless, yellow-pink in deposit; BASIDIA 4-spored, 55-80 x 6-12 microns, cylindric-clavate with basal clamp connection; CYSTIDIA: 1) "lamprocystidia, thick-walled with fusiform incrusted upper part 30-50 x 7-10 microns", 2) gloeocystidia 100-130 x 5-8 microns, sulfo-positive, "thin-walled, with granular contents, arising ascuslike out of the base"; HYPHAE monomitic, 3-5 microns wide, branched, thin-walled, septa with clamp connections, (Breitenbach), SPORES elliptic, smooth, thin-walled, mostly 14-16 x 8-10 microns, colorless (but in spore print yellow or light orange depending on thickness of print); BASIDIA varying but mostly cylindric, "more or less sinuous and constricted, reaching a size of 60-90 x 10-15 microns", with 4 conic sterigmata, "in young fruitbodies some pleurobasidia seen"; CYSTIDIA of 2 types: 1) encrusted, thick-walled metuloids, the distal encrusted part 30-50 x 8-12 microns, the basal unencrusted part of varying length, often with adventitious septation, 2) thin-walled sulfocystidia, numerous especially in young specimens, "reaching a length of 100 or 150 microns and a width of 10-15, sometimes 20 microns", with granular protoplasm reacting to sulfovanillin, "elongate, obtuse, or tapering to an apex"; section showing a basal subicular layer 100-200 microns thick, of dense parallel hyphae, and a subhymenial layer "of mainly vertical hyphae and hymenial elements", at first about 100 microns thick, then increasing in thickness, HYPHAE monomitic, "with thin or slightly thickened walls", with clamp connections, the subhymenial hyphae 3-4 microns wide, richly branched, the subicular hyphae 4-5 microns long, straight, sparsely branched, (Eriksson)
Notes:
Peniophora aurantiaca has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NB, NF, NS, NT, ON, PE, YT, AK, MA, ME, MI, MS, MT, NC, NH, NY, PA, and WI, (Ginns). It also occurs in Europe including Switzerland (Breitenbach). It is common in subalpine region of central and southern Europe (Eriksson).

Habitat and Range

SIMILAR SPECIES
Peniophora erikssonii also has large spores and is only reliably separated by clampless septa, (Eriksson). See also SIMILAR section of Peniophora incarnata.
Habitat
on dead wood; small dead twigs; dead stems and branches; associated with a white rot; primarily on Alnus and Salix: on Abies grandis (needs confirmation), Alnus viridis ssp. crispa (Green Alder), Alnus rubra (Red Alder), Alnus rugosa (Speckled Alder), Alnus sinuata (Sitka Alder), Arbutus menziesii (Pacific Madrone), Betula sp. (birch), Menziesia ferruginea (false azalea), Populus trichocarpa (Black Cottonwood), Salix sp. (willow), Ulmus sp. (elm), (Ginns), on dead wood of Alnus viridis (Green Alder) usually with bark, "on attached and fallen branches, at mountain and subalpine elevations", (Breitenbach for Switzerland), on Alnus viridis in Europe in subalpine areas, on Alnus rubra, A. rugosa, and A. sinuata in North America extending down to sea-level, (Eriksson)

Synonyms

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Apioporthe anomala (Peck) Hoehn.
Cryptosporella anomala (Peck) Sacc.