Ramaria thiersii R.H. Petersen & Scates
No common name
Gomphaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
No common name
Gomphaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Ramaria thiersii has medium-sized fruitbodies. It often develops beneath the soil and then is very pale, but if exposed to sun during development branches are yellow. Where rubbed or bruised, it becomes brown weakly or strongly. Stem flesh is inamyloid. It fruits in spring. Spores are long with small, discrete, low warts.
Chemical Reactions:
IKI negative on stem flesh (inamyloid), KOH causes spore-bearing surface to darken; ferric chloride in water positive reaction, probably with branch sections, (Petersen), stem flesh negative with ferric sulphate in water (Exeter)
Odor:
negligible (Petersen)
Taste:
negligible (Petersen)
Microscopic:
spores 11.6-15.8 x 4.0-5.0 microns, average 13.28 x 4.24 microns, cylindric to narrowly elliptic, occasionally somewhat S-shaped, obscurely roughened in profile, ornamentation of small discrete low warts, 1-2 droplets that are yellow-refringent, wall up to 0.2 microns thick; basidia 4-spored, 45-50 x 7-8 microns, clavate, clamped, contents granular to minutely multiguttulate, sterigmata stout, straight, and subcoronate [somewhat crowned]; clamp connections present, (Petersen)
Notes:
R. thiersii has been found in ID and CA (Petersen(3)). One collection from OR at Oregon State University is labeled as this species and there is another collection from BC at the University of British Columbia.
EDIBILITY
unknown (Scates-Barnhart)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
When the yellow color is expressed, R. thiersii is similar to Ramaria rasilispora var. scatesiana which however has slightly amyloid stem flesh (there are other chemical differences as well) and spores are smooth and average about 10 microns long, (Petersen). Ramaria rubricarnata var. pallida has amyloid stem flesh, branches often have a hint of salmon color (usually not in R. thiersii), and brown change of surface is weak if present at all, (Petersen).Habitat
above ground or partly underground: in the normally drier Sierra Nevada, fruitbodies are subhypogeous and therefore pale in color, but in wetter northern Idaho, fruitbodies usually develop above ground and are larger and more brightly colored, fruiting in June, (Petersen), under mixed conifers with true firs, above 2500 feet (760 meters) in Idaho or 5000 feet (1525 meters) in Sierra Nevada of California, (Scates-Barnhart), fruits in humus or soil and matures above the ground, associated with Pinaceae spp., June, (Castellano)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hericium coralloides sensu N. Amer. aucts.