Small Stagshorn

Description:

Look for Calocera cornea after heavy rains on the barkless, dead wood of oaks and other hardwoods, where it appears as clusters of slick, cylindric fruiting bodies with rounded-off or somewhat sharpened tips. In fact it looks more like a tiny club fungus than a jelly fungus, but microscopic examination reveals the distinctive Y-shaped basidia that characterize members of the Dacrymycetales--a large group within the jelly fungi. Description: Ecology: Saprobic; growing scattered to gregariously on the barkless wood of hardwoods (especially oaks); summer and fall; widely distributed in North America. Fruiting Body: Cylindric, with rounded to sharpened tips; occasionally shallowly forked near the tip; to about 2 cm high and 3 mm thick; smooth and slick; firm but gelatinous; orangish yellow. Spore Print: White to yellowish ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/calocera_c... )

Habitat:

location: North America, Europe edibility: Inedible fungus colour: White to cream, Yellow normal size: Less than 5cm cap type: Other stem type: Lateral, rudimentary or absent flesh: Mushroom slimy or sticky spore colour: White, cream or yellowish habitat: Grows on wood Calocera cornea (Batsch ex Fr.) Fr. Zäher Hörnling Small Stagshorn Fruit body 4–10mm high, awl-shaped, rarely forked, tough-gelatinous, yellow when fresh drying more orange. Spores white, sausage-shaped, 7–10×3–4µ. Basidia shaped like tuning-forks. Habitat crowded on twigs and branches of deciduous trees. Season all year. Frequent. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )

Notes:

Calocera cornea is a jelly fungus that grows on decaying wood. It is a member of the Dacrymycetales, an order of fungi characterized by their unique "tuning fork" basidia. Its yellow, finger-like, tapering basidiocarps are somewhat gelatinous in texture. In typical specimens the basidiocarps become up to 3 mm in diameter, and 2 cm in height. The hymenium covers the sides of the basidiocarps, each basidium producing and forcibly discharging only two basidiospores ----wikipedia , -----( http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Caloc... )