Ramaria eumorpha

Description

Ramaria eumorpha is a fairly widespread coral fungus. It grows from the plains to the mountains, in forests, in groups, on the ground through a bed of needles or foliage as well as on rotting trunks of softwoods (spruce, pine), and rarely deciduous ones. (birch, aspen, oak). The season is between (July) August and October (November).

Mushroom Identification

1. Fruiting Bodies

   2 - 10 cm high, 2 - 5 cm wide, bushy, strongly branched, with slender vertical branches, pale ocher, ocher, yellow-orange, ocher-brown, yellow-brown, red, with numerous, often lighter branches at the ends.

2. Stem

   1 - 2.5 cm height, slightly pronounced, hairy.

3. Spores

   6-10.5 * 3.5-6 microns, oblong-oval or ovoid, with a thick-spiked surface, ocher.

4. Spore Print

   Ocher.

5. Flesh

   The flesh is brittle at first, then tight, white or yellowish, without a pronounced odor.

6. Habitat

   Grows from August to late September, in coniferous pine forests, on the ground, in groups, often forming rows or "witch rings".

History

Binomial name Clavariella spinulosa var. eumorpha was determined by the Finnish mycologist Petter Adolf Karsten in volume 37 of the botanical journal Bidrag till Kännedom av Finlands Natur och Folk from 1882 and transferred to the genus Clavaria by the Italian mycologist Sacc. as Clavaria eumorpha, to be read in volume 6 of his great work Sylloge fungorum omnium husque cognitorum from 1888.

Then, in 1950, the English mycologist Edred John Henry Corner (1906-1996) renamed the species Ramaria eumorpha, to be checked in issue 1 of the Annals of Botany Memoirs, the current name being valid (2021).

The epithet is derived from the ancient Greek word (ancient Greek εὔμορφος = elegant, fine, beautiful, well formed), due to its general appearance.

Synonyms

1. Clavariella spinulosa var. eumorpha P.Karst. (1882)

2. Clavaria spinulosa subsp. eumorpha (P.Karst.) Sacc. (1888)

3. Clavaria eumorpha (P.Karst.) Sacc. (1888)

4. Clavariella eumorpha (P.Karst.) P.Karst. (1889)

5. Clavaria invalii Cotton & Wakef. (1919)

6. Ramaria invalii (Cotton & Wakef.) Donk (1933)

7. Phaeoclavulina eumorpha (P.Karst.) Giachini (2011)

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Dr. Hans-Günter Wagner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Dr. Hans-Günter Wagner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Eugene Popov (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Eugene Popov (CC BY-SA 4.0)