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 ( 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:

Because of its erect fruiting body, inexperienced mushroom hunters often confuse this jelly fungus with a small coral, e.g. Clavulinopsis laeticolor and/or C. fusiformis. These closely resemble Calocera cornea but can be told apart by a more brittle texture, and habitat preference-- on duff, rarely on wood. Like many jelly fungi, Calocera cornea is capable of rehydrating to its original form after drying. A related, larger, multi-branched species also found in our area is Calocera viscosa. It too has a coral look-alike: Clavulinopsis corniculata ( http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Caloc... ), ( http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wo... ), ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... ),