Summary:
Ramaria botrytis var. botrytis has its stem and lower branches whitish, with stains yellowish to light brown. The tips and a short distance down branches are colored reddish to purplish. The stem is single and massive with the branch pattern cauliflower-like (dense terminal branching on a few thick lower branches). Stem flesh is weakly amyloid. Spores are striate and clamp connections are present.

Chemical Reactions:
stem flesh weakly amyloid, reaction frequently requiring 30 minutes or more, (Marr), stem flesh negative with ferric sulphate in water (Exeter)

Odor:
faintly sweet (Marr)

Taste:
not distinctive (Marr)

Microscopic:
spores 11-17 x 4-6 microns, average 13.8 x 4.7 microns, subcylindric, mummy-shaped, or occasionally sigmoid, striate ornamentation steeply spiraled to nearly longitudinal, both striae and general wall cyanophilic; basidia mostly 4-spored (occasionally 2-spored), 59-82 x 8-11 microns, clavate, clamped; hyphae with clamp connections, (Marr)

Spore Deposit:
ocher to pale orange (Lincoff(2)), light orange-brown (Miller)

Notes:
It is found at least in WA, (Marr), from New England to North Carolina, west to southern CA and BC (var unspecified), (Lincoff(2)), and Europe and North Africa, (Courtecuisse). There is a collection from BC (var unspecified) by O. Ceska at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

yes, choice, (Lincoff(2))