Clavulina coralloides
What You Should Know
Clavulina coralloides is an edible white to cream coral mushroom. It can be recognized by its "cristate" branch tips, which are flattened and feature several tiny points. Multi-branched structure arising from a short, stalk-like base, white to cream or pale yellow; branching pattern shrub-like, ultimate branches rounded below and somewhat flattened above, tips with tiny, tooth-like projections; spores white in mass. Widespread in woods and grassland. Grows from the ground under conifers and hardwoods. Fruits from summer through fall.
This mushroom tends to be infected by the ascomycete Helminthosphaeria clavariarum, which "produces gray to black colors in the clavulina and seems to reduce branching of the tips, both of which can lead to confusion with C. cinerea.
Other names: Clavulina Cristata, Crested Coral, White Coral Mushroom, White-crested Coral Fungus, Claviaire à crêtes (France), Kammförmiger Keulenpilz (German), Kuřátečko hřebenité (Czech Republic), Witte koraalzwam (Netherlands).
Clavulina coralloides Mushroom Identification
Fruiting Body
2-10 cm high; 3-10 cm wide; sparingly to repeatedly branched.
Branches
2-5 mm thick; smooth; white, sometimes becoming pinkish to pale pinkish brown with age; tips colored like the sides, flattened and "cristate" with several sharp points; grayish to brownish when dried for the herbarium; when parasitized becoming dark gray to black from the base upward, and eventually blackish overall.
Base
When present 0.5-3 cm long; up to about 0.5 cm wide; white (gray to black when parasitized).
Flesh
Whitish; fairly brittle.
Spore Print
White.
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Habitat
Presumed to be mycorrhizal with conifers and perhaps with hardwoods; growing alone, gregariously, or in clusters; summer and fall (overwinter in warm climates); widely distributed in North America.
Chemical Reactions
Irons salts negative on branches.
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Microscopic Features
Spores 7-11 x 6.5-10 µ; subglobose; smooth; with an apiculus. Basidia clavate; 40-60 x 6-8 µ; 2-sterigmate with long (5-7 µ), incurved sterigmata. Clamp connections present.
Clavulina coralloides Look-Alikes
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Darker in color.
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Has parallel branches and grows on wood.
Ramariopsis kunzei
Similar, but the ends of the twigs are blunt or simply pointed.
Artomyces pyxidata
Has candle-shaped branched fruiting bodies with cup-shaped tops.
Clavulina coralloides Taxonomy and Etymology
In 1753 Carl Linnaeus described the genus Plantarum, wherein he gave it the scientific binomial name Clavaria coralloides. In 1888 German mycologist Joseph Schrötter renamed the genus Clavaria.
The epithet "coralloides" refers to the specific coral shape of the mushroom.
Clavulina coralloides Chemistry
In addition to the major fatty acid components, palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid, Clavulina coralloides contains two unusual fatty acids, cis-9, cis-14-octadecadien-12-ynoic acid, and the conjugated cis-9, trans-11, trans-13, cis-15-octadecatetraenoic acid (commonly known as α-parinaric acid). Clavulina coralloides is the only fungi known to contain α-parinaric acid.
Clavulina coralloides Synonyms and Varietes
Clavulina cristata var. coralloides Corner
Clavaria alba Pers., 1822, nom. superfl.
Clavaria coralloides L. 1753
Clavaria coralloides L., 1753basionym
Clavaria coralloides var. alba Bull., 1791
Clavaria coralloides var. elegans (Bolton) Purton, 1821
Clavaria coralloides var. lappa P.Karst., 1882
Clavaria coralloides var. lutea Bull., 1791
Clavaria coralloides-cinerea Bull. 1788
Clavaria cristata (Holmsk.) Pers., 1801
Clavaria cristata var. ambigua Pass., 1885
Clavaria cristata var. cinerascens Sacc., 1879
Clavaria cristata var. curta Jungh., 1830
Clavaria cristata var. fallax Fr., 1821
Clavaria cristata var. fimbriata (Pers.) Fr., 1821
Clavaria cristata var. flexuosa Jungh., 1830
Clavaria cristata var. minor Pat., 1884
Clavaria cristata var. nivea Pers., 1801
Clavaria cristata var. vulgaris Alb. & Schwein., 1805
Clavaria elegans Bolton, Hist 1790
Clavaria fimbriata Pers., 1794
Clavaria holmskjoldiana Fr., 1818
Clavaria rugosa var. elegans (Bolton) Pers., 1801
Clavariella cristata (Holmsk.) P. Karst. 1882
Clavulina coralloides f. cristata (Holmsk.) Franchi & M. Marchetti, 2000
Clavulina cristata (Holmsk.) J.Schröt., 1888
Clavulina cristata f. bicolor Donk, 1933
Clavulina cristata f. subcinerea Donk, 1933
Clavulina cristata subsp. cinerascens Corner, 1950
Clavulina cristata subsp. coralloides (L.) Corner, 1950
Clavulina cristata subsp. eucristata Corner, 1950, nom. superfl.
Clavulina cristata var. bicolor (Donk) Cetto, 1987
Clavulina cristata var. brunneola K.S.Thind & Anand, 1956
Clavulina cristata var. coralloides Corner 1950
Clavulina cristata var. incarnata Corner, 1950
Clavulina cristata var. lappa P.Karst., 1882
Clavulina cristata var. subrugosa Corner, 1950
Clavulina cristata var. zealandica R.H.Petersen, 1988
Clavulina incarnata (Corner) Olariaga, 2013
Ramaria alba (Bull.) Quél., 1894
Ramaria coralloides (L.) Holmsk., 1790
Ramaria cristata Holmsk., 1790
Stichoramaria cristata (Holmsk.) Ulbr., 1928
Clavulina coralloides Video
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