Summary:
Thelephora anthocephala is not commonly identified in the Pacific Northwest and is very variable in form, with a stem (usually), giving rise to branches that vary from leafy to branched-clavarioid, the texture thin-leathery, and the color red-brown to purple-brown with white growing edges. The type variety has a mild odor. The description below is from Corner(4) for the type variety except where otherwise stated. Var. clavularis has the clavarioid form, var. americana has "the incipient stereoid form with widely flabelliform lower branches", var. anthocephala has "the reduced stereoid form", and var. incrustans-resupinata (France) has the "incipient resupinate" form (Corner(4) p. 5).
The distribution of this species in the type variety is given in Ginns(5) as QC, AK, IA, KY, LA, MA, MO, NC, NY, OH, and PA, but for var. anthocephala, Corner just gives the distribution "North Temperate", for var. clavularis "Europe, Canada, U.S.A., Japan" and for var. americana "Canada, U.S.A, Mexico, Japan, China". There are collections designated Thelephora anthocephala from BC at the University of British Columbia.
Fruiting body:
up to 6cm high, mesopodal, rarely pleuropodal, "with peripheral radiating oblique flattened, spathulate or cuneate, branches" (italicized), "occasionally subinfundibuliform with the branches united at the base, proliferating from the centre", "branches multifid, dichotomous or simple, subtomentose" (italicized) "on the upperside", 0.5-1.5cm wide, "sometimes fimbriate or incised"; "ferruginous to fuscous ferruginous or purplish" (italicized), "drying paler, the growing edges white", "hymenium inferior, smooth" (italicized), "darker brown or greyish violet", (var. anthocephala), branches "clavarioid with amphigenous hymenium, few or many, multifid below" and 0.1-0.3cm wide at the axils, "dichotomous above" and 0.05-0.1cm wide (var. clavularis), as var. clavularis "but more luxuriant", to 7cm high, "the lower branches flabelliform and multifid with inferior hymenium, the upper clavarioid with amphigenous hymenium, mesopodal or spuriously pleuropodal by suppression in caespitose fruit-bodies"; "branches divided up to six times, always with flattened branching", 0.25-0.8cm wide at lower axils, 0.1-0.2cm wide in upper part, (var. americana)
Flesh:
thin, coriaceous; brownish (var. anthocephala)
Stem:
0.5-2.7 x 0.1-0.4cm (rarely absent), subtomentose (var. anthocephala), up to 4cm long (var. americana)
Chemical Reactions:
trama is not cyanescent in KOH and the subhymenium is cyanescent or not in KOH
Microscopic:
spores (7)8-10(11) x (5)6-8.5 microns, "angular lobate", purplish umber, spines 0.5-1.5(2) microns long, with 1 droplet; basidia 2-4-spored, 40-80 x 7-11 microns, sterigmata 5-7 microns long; cystidia none; hyphae 2-6 microns wide, with clamp connections
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