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

Trechispora mollusca (Pers.: Fr.) Liberta
no common name
Hydnodontaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi

© Bryan Kelly-McArthur  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #79355)

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Distribution of Trechispora mollusca
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Species Information

Summary:
Also listed in Polypores category. Trechispora mollusca differs from other resupinate white pore surfaces in its cottony-delicate consistency and spiny spores. It differs from crust fungi in general in its distinct pore-like surface. Features include 1) resupinate growth on wood, 2) a soft, fragile, white fruitbody, the pores sometimes splitting to become almost hydnoid, the margin cobwebby to fringed or rhizomorphic, 3) spores that are oval to nearly round, finely spiny, inamyloid, and colorless, and 4) hyphae that are monomitic, the septa with or without clamp connections, often inflated at the clamp connections or septa.

Trechispora mollusca has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, MB, NB, NF, NS, ON, PE, AK, AZ, CA, CO, LA, MA, MO, MT, NC, NM, NY, PA, SC, TN, and VA, (Gilbertson), also NT, PQ, and MN, (Ginns), and MI, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, (Liberta). It is common in the whole of Scandinavia (Hjortstam).
Fruiting body:
up to 6cm across, resupinate, very soft and fragile, readily separable; margin white, often very thin, arachnoid, rhizomorphic; flesh less than 0.05cm thick, soft, not zoned; white; pores 2-4 per mm, angular, with thin pubescent [downy] walls that become torn when old; white to cream; tube layer up to 0.2cm thick, colored as flesh and continuous with it; taste mild, (Gilbertson), resupinate, easily separable; margin white, arachnoid to fimbriate or rhizomorphic; flesh thin, soft; white, pores mostly 1mm long, rarely as long as 2mm, rounded, angular, or sinuate, (2)3-4(5) per mm, fragile, the edges fimbriate [fringed] or splitting to become almost hydnoid [tooth-like], (Liberta), up to 0.2cm thick, resupinate, soft, fragile, easily separable from wood; "cordons often seen at the margin which is thinning out, often broad, arachnoid and often finely fibrillose"; pores 2-5 per mm and of unequal width when dried; rounded, angular or sinuous; white, changing to ochraceous when dried, (Hjortstam), spore deposit white (Buczacki)
Microscopic:
SPORES 3.5-4.5 x 2.5-3.5 microns, oval to nearly round, echinulate [with slender sharp spines], inamyloid, colorless; BASIDIA 4-spored, up to 14 microns long, 4.5-5.5 microns wide, short-cylindric, with basal clamp connection; CYSTIDIA none; HYPHAE monomitic, hyphae of subiculum 2.5-5 microns wide, colorless, thin-walled, "often ampullate and incrusted, frequently branched, with clamp connections", (Gilbertson), SPORES 4-5.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns including warts, broadly elliptic to elliptic, verrucose; BASIDIA 4-spored, 10-15 x 5-6 microns, short-cylindric often with slight median constriction, with basal clamp connection; HYPHAE monomitic, "in the subhymenium and in the dissepiments straight, thin-walled to slightly thick-walled 2-5 microns wide, encrusted, forming byssoid mats and cordons in the subiculum, septa in the cordons often ampulliform, hyphae in the byssoid mats often with large, globose vesicles 20-25(40) microns, subhymenium lacking or composed of a few layers of richly branched, very short-celled, nearly isodiametric or irregular hyphae but often basidia are born directly on the dissepiment hyphae", (Hjortstam), SPORES 2.5-4 x 2.5-3 microns (not including spines), oval to nearly round, echinulate, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled; BASIDIA 4-spored, 8.5-16.5(18) x 4-6 microns, subcylindric to clavate; CYSTIDIA absent; HYPHAE monomitic 2-4 microns, colorless, thin-walled, frequently encrusted with irregularly shaped crystalline material, septate with or without clamp connections, frequently with ampulliform swellings at the clamp connection or septum up to 8 microns wide; hyphae of trama similar, (Liberta), SPORES 4-5 x 3-4 microns, broadly elliptic, (Breitenbach)

Habitat / Range

annual, on dead wood of hardwoods and conifers, associated with a white rot of conifer and hardwood logs and slash, (Gilbertson), usually growing in well sheltered places on strongly decayed trunks and branches, (Hjortstam(6)), on the underside of rotten wood of hardwoods and conifers, also on leaves and other plant remains, (Breitenbach), also on Fomes fomentarius (Liberta), all year (Buczacki)

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Hydnum calvatum K.A. Harrison

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Range and Status Information Links

Additional Photo Sources

Related Databases

Species References

Hjortstam(6), Liberta(1), Breitenbach(2)*, Ginns(5), Gilbertson(1), Buczacki(1)*

References for the fungi

General References