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

Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on bark and wood of decaying logs, or on slash, 2) a fruitbody that is cream to pale ochraceous, smooth, and firmly attached, the margin indistinct, 3) spores that are cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, and colorless, 4) abundant dextrinoid dichohyphidia, in small, densely branched clusters (with the ultimate branches short), 5) gloeocystidia that are broadly cylindric (often swollen in the middle), with thickened walls thinning out at the apex, (gloeocystidia not seen by Burt), 6) hyphae without clamp connections (Julich, Martin), or with clamp connections (Welden).

Vararia racemosa has been found in BC, WA, ID, AB, AZ, CO, MT, and UT, (Ginns).

Fruiting body:
2-12cm long, 1-4cm wide, broadly effused [spread out], closely adnate [firmly attached], not separable; drying cream buff; even, becoming transversely cracked in the central parts; margin thinning out, indeterminate, colored as the rest of the surface, (Burt), effused [spread out], cream to pale ochraceous; even, (Julich), resupinate; pale buff; smooth, (Martin)

Microscopic:
SPORES (5)6-8 x 2-3 microns, cylindric; BASIDIA 25-30 x 3.5-4 microns; DICHOHYPHIDIA with ultimate branches short; GLOEOCYSTIDIA up to 10 microns wide, broadly cylindric (often swollen in the middle), with thickened walls, mucronate; HYPHAE 2-3 microns wide, (Julich), SPORES 5-7 x 2-2.5 microns, cylindric; DICHOHYPHIDIA abundant, in small, densely branched clusters, strongly dextrinoid; CYSTIDIA thick-walled, "often mucronate, with the wall thinning out at the narrowed apex"; GENERATIVE HYPHAE simple-septate; (Martin), SPORES 7-8 x 2-3 microns, averaging 7.6 x 2.3 microns, (also given as 6.5-8 x 2-3 microns), cylindric, inamyloid; BASIDIA 4-spored, reaching about 30 x 4 microns, sterigmata straight, delicate; DICHOPHYSES not especially distinctive; PSEUDOCYSTIDIA present; HYPHAE of context colorless, "thin-walled, branching, sometimes forming a pseudoparenchyma near the substrate, and bearing clamp-connections", (Welden), SPORES 4-6 x 2-3 microns, flattened on one side, smooth, colorless; PARAPHYSES "in hymenial surface with tips branched sometimes racemosely, sometimes in antler-shaped manner, often irregularly", these branches about 0.5 microns wide; GLOEOCYSTIDIA none; fruitbody in section 70-140 microns thick, colored cream-buff, composed of HYPHAE 2-2.5 microns wide, very densely arranged, erect, branching and interwoven, (Burt)