Summary:
Features include 1) whitish branches, rarely tinged flesh color, erect or spreading, smooth and not crested at tips, 2) fragile flesh, 3) stem finely hairy or tomentose, sometimes absent, 4) growth under trees or in pastures or occasionally on wood, and 5) broadly elliptic to minutely spiny spores usually on 4-spored basidia. Siegel(2) say "We know that the California species is distinct from the European one, and it will be given a name soon."

Chemical Reactions:
dried tissue darkens characteristically in KOH

Odor:
none or slight, (Corner(2))

Taste:
mild (Arora), none or slight (Corner(2))

Microscopic:
spores 3-5.5 x 2.5-4.5 microns, broadly elliptic to round, minutely spiny; basidia 4-spored, (Arora), spores 3-5.5 x 2.3-4.5 microns, broadly elliptic to nearly round, minutely echinulate, verruculose or merely asperulate, the spines up to 0.5 microns long and acute, or shorter and blunt, the wall slightly thickened, one droplet, small apiculus; basidia 4-spored, rarely 2-spored, 25-40 x 5-6 microns, clavate, sterigmata 4-4.5 microns long; cystidia none; hymenium 30-40 microns thick at first, gradually thickening to 100 microns, absent from trunk and upper villous sides of the main branches, "subhymenium well-developed, composed of narrow, 2-3 microns wide, closely interwoven hyphae, not inflating"; hyphae monomitic, 3-10 microns wide, 40-320 microns long, thin-walled, smooth, with clamp connections; in the tomentum on stem hyphae 2-4 microns wide, loosely interwoven, with smooth thin walls and clamp connections, (Corner(2))

Spore Deposit:
white (Arora)

Notes:
Ramariopsis ''kunzei'' is "widely distributed in northeastern North America and from the Pacific Northwest to southern California", (Lincoff). It is rather common, found in North America, Europe, and Japan, (Corner(2)). It is also found in Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and New Zealand, (Corner(3)). It has been reported from WA by Andrew Parker, pers. comm., BC (Kroeger(3)), and CA (Arora).

EDIBILITY

harmless (Arora)