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

Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on litter and decaying wood of confers and hardwoods, 2) a fleshy to tremelloid fruitbody with a merulioid or somewhat poroid surface that is brown with a cream-colored margin, sometimes with rhizomorphs, 3) spores that are elliptic or ovate, smooth, dextrinoid, and brown, 4) hyphae that are colorless or brown, both with clamp connections and both sometimes encrusted, skeletal hyphae acyanophilic and primarily confined to the hyphal strands. Carlsen(1) have used molecular studies to demonstrate 5 phylogenetic species within the Serpula himantioides complex, 4 of them in North America.

Serpula himantioides sensu lato has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NB, NF, NS, ON, PQ, AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, IA, IL, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NV, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, and WY, (Ginns(5)). It has also been found in Cuba, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Sweden, United Kingdom, South Africa, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, (Cooke)

Fruiting body:
single to confluent, forming large patches up to 100cm x 10cm; usually up to 0.05cm thick, sometimes up to 0.07cm thick; "when fresh more or less fleshy to tremelloid", at least in the areas close to the spore-bearing surface; spore-bearing surface "gyrose-plicate to gyrose-porose", pores up to 0.5cm across and from 0.05-0.5cm deep when labyrinthiform, "when shallow, net-like, more or less irregularly arranged, when young, very shallow, grey, then gold to cinnamon, olive or dark brown, when dry honey-brown, with a white margin"; subicular layers easily separable from the substrate in large sheets; sometimes with rhizomorphs; "odor not apparent to strong", (Cooke), spore-bearing surface merulioid, light brown to raw umber; margin cream-colored, (Martin), spore deposit yellow (Buczacki)

Microscopic:
SPORES (7)10-11.5(12) x (4)5-7(8) microns, ovate, flattened on one side, tawny or light brown in KOH-phloxine mount, apiculate; BASIDIA 4-spored, averaging 36 x 7.3 microns, sterigmata 7.2 microns long; BASAL LAYER next to substrate with colorless and brown hyphae parallel with the substrate, 120 microns thick, SUBHYMENIAL LAYER "appearing partly gelatinized, loosely arranged", parallel with the substrate but without brown hyphae, near the hymenium forming a denser layer perpendicular to the substrate, about 150 microns thick; brown hyphae 5-8 microns wide, colorless hyphae 2-5 microns wide, both types sometimes encrusted, both types with simple or compound clamp connections, (Cooke), SPORES 10-14 x 5-6 microns, narrowly elliptic, dextrinoid; hyphae with clamp connections, (Martin)