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

Summary:
Features of Ramaria rubrievanescens include 1) white to cream color or pinkish beige except for primordial branch tips that are pink, the pink color disappearing with maturation or within a day of picking, 2) massive white stem discoloring yellowish and bruising maroon, 3) fall fruiting, 4) cyanophilic ornamentation of conspicuous striae [stripes], and 5) clamp connections. Note that some Ramaria rubrievanescens specimens including the spring ones were later classified by Petersen(3) as Ramaria rubripermanens, (see SIMILAR section for Petersen''s criteria).

Collections were examined from WA, (Marr, September, October). Distribution includes WA, Oregon, California, and eastern North America, (Castellano, who includes spring collections). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia.

Fruiting body:
6.5-8.5cm wide, 7-8cm high, nearly as wide as tall, massive stem, branch systems crowded, vertically compressed on the stem and curving inwards, about 1-4cm long, branching 2-5 times, lower branches usually very short and wide, 2-4cm wide, connation [joining] frequent in lower part, upper branches mostly 0.1-0.4cm wide, axils U-shaped, slightly divergent, bifurcate to pluridigitate near tips, tips obtuse, rounded, or decidedly blunt, (Marr), 7-22cm wide, 7-22cm high, often remaining cauliflower-like for a long time, (Scates-Barnhart), up to 6cm wide and 9cm high, obpyriform in outline, major branches 3 or 4, stout, ascending but not erect, more or less round in cross-section, branches in 4-6 ranks, round in cross-section, axils rounded to lunate, internodes long in lower part, diminishing rather abruptly in upper part, tips minutely digitate when young, when old knobby, (Petersen(12))

Flesh:
punky firm when fresh; white, (Marr), dry, solid, soft; white, reddish under surface stains, (Petersen(12))

Branch color:
primordial branches flushed with ''shell pink'', pink color lost with maturation and soon after collecting, mature branches ''yellowish white''; unless specimens are collected when immature, fruitbodies "are apt to be described as white or cream-colored", (Marr), peachy pink to pale salmon (light orange) or a shade browner, soon losing color, then seeming white overall, usually not bruising but occasionally turning winy in damaged areas, (Scates-Barnhart), fleshy beige, tips buff pink to pallid rose when young, (Petersen(12))

Stem:
3.5-9cm x 2-4.5cm, single, cylindric or conic, massive; milk-white discoloring yellowish, bruising ''brownish violet''; with occasional small abortive or primordial branches, (Marr), single, proportionately massive, usually 1/2 to 2/3 of total height but not so broad as tall, usually cylindric with rounded base, (Scates-Barnhart), "single, stout to massive, rounded below"; "off-white where protected, with limited stains to maroon"; smooth; apparently without aborted branchlets, (Petersen(12))

Chemical Reactions:
stem flesh amyloid, but "reaction may be slow (?)", (Marr), stem flesh weakly amyloid, (Scates-Barnhart), stem flesh strongly dextrinoid (see note under Ramaria rubripermanens for details on the color of the reaction in this group), (Petersen(3)), IKI positive slowly, green-purple, branch sections in ferric sulphate in water green but reaction not intense, (Petersen(12)), ferric sulphate in water on stem context negative, (Exeter)

Odor:
faintly sweet (Marr), negligible (Petersen(12))

Taste:
slightly similar to nuts (Marr), faintly bitter, acrid [peppery] on tongue, (Petersen(12))

Microscopic:
spores 11-13 x 4-5.5 microns, average 11.7 x 4.9 microns, mummy-shaped, ventral surface curving sharply to the apiculus, cyanophilic ornamentation of conspicuous striae; basidia mostly 4-spored, occasionally 2-spored, 55-87 x 8-11 microns, clavate, clamped, containing strongly cyanophilic globules; clamp connections present, (Marr), spores 10-13 x 3.5-5.5 microns, average 11.77 x 4.41 microns, (Scates-Barnhart), spores 10.4-13.7 x 4.0-4.7 microns, average 11.77 x 4.41 microns, mummy-shaped, ornamentation of delicate closely spaced striae in an abaxial-distal to adaxial-proximal orientation, contents with one to several dark, lobed inclusions, wall up to 0.2 microns thick, apiculus gradual, with no throat; basidia 4-spored, 55-65 x 7-8 microns, clavate, clamped, contents homogeneous; clamp connections present, (Petersen(12))

Spore Deposit:
light yellow'', (Marr), "light salmon orange", (Petersen(12))