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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) resupinate growth on wood or bark, also on old shelf polypores and on lichens, 2) a waxy to subgelatinous fruitbody that is violaceous gray (occasionally purple or pink), smooth to slightly bumpy, the margin irregular, distinctly bounded to thin and translucent, 3) spores measuring 5.5-9 x 5.5-7.5 microns, round to broadly elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, and colorless, 4) tulasnelloid basidia, and 5) hyphae without clamp connections forming a "conventionally branched" hymenium.
Tulasnella violea has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NS, ON, AZ, CO, CT, GA, IA, IL, MA, ME, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, PA, SC, VT, and WI, (Ginns). It is widespread in Europe, and also occurs in Colombia and Tahiti, (Olive). Collections were examined from France, Germany, Majorca, Norway, and the United Kingdom, (Roberts). It has been found in Switzerland (Breitenbach).
Fruiting body: resupinate, effused [spread out], ceraceous [waxy] to subgelatinous, often substantial and conspicuous; violaceous gray, occasionally purple or pink, (Roberts), a patch one to several centimeters in extent, attached firmly, filmy wax-like to farinose [mealy]; "lilac-violet when moist, more pink when dry"; "smooth to slightly and irregularly tuberculate"; "margin irregular, distinctly bounded to thin and translucent", (Breitenbach)
Microscopic: SPORES about 5.5-9 x 5.5-7.5 microns, mostly round to broadly elliptic; BASIDIA mostly clavate, 5-9 microns wide, sterigmata spherical or ellipsoid "becoming clavate, fusiform, or mitriform", variously extending up to 35 microns long; HYPHAE 3-5(7) microns wide, without clamp connections, "forming a conventionally branched, compact hymenium", ["conventionally branched" meaning "composed of highly branched, short-celled, basidia-bearing hyphae arising from straighter, longer-celled, often thick-walled, basal hyphae running parallel to the substrate", as opposed to "cluster forming", meaning "clusters of basidia are formed on long-celled, little-branched hyphae, basal hyphae being absent or little differentiated", a condition not established for Pacific Northwest species of Tulasnella], subhymenial hyphae "normally short-celled and rather swollen", basal hyphae "longer, straighter, thick-walled, occasionally dextrinoid", (Roberts), SPORES 6-8 x 5-6.5 microns, oval to nearly round, smooth, colorless, some with droplets; BASIDIA 4-spored, hypobasidia 10-20 x 5-8 microns, oval to clavate, epibasidia oval to pyriform [pear-shaped]; CYSTIDIA not seen; hyphae 3-4 microns wide, septa without clamp connections, (Breitenbach), spores pink in mass (Martin)
Habitat / Range
on "branches of conifers and hardwoods with and without bark and lying on the ground, as well as on old polypores"; throughout the year, (Breitenbach), dead wood, bark, lichens, old shelf polypores, (Martin), Acer (maple), Alnus (alder), Betula (birch), Carya (hickory), Fagus (beech), Fraxinus (ash), Holodiscus discolor (Ocean-spray), Liriodendron tulipifera (Tuliptree), Nyssa (tupelo), Picea (spruce), Pinus (pine), Populus, Quercus (oak), Salix (willow); bark; very rotten wood, limb; fallen branches, old polypores, (Ginns)
Similar Species
Tulasnella fuscoviolacea is one of a number of species that appear to be morphologically identical to T. violea except for their spores (longer and narrower in T. fuscoviolacea), (Roberts). Tulasnella eichleriana is similar enough that it is listed as a synonym of Tulasnella violea by Martin, but Roberts(2) disagrees strongly because the microscopic dimensions are so different [size of spores for instance]. Tulasnella pruinosa has narrower spores. Tulasnella bifrons has clamp connections according to Roberts(2).
