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

1. Fruiting Body

   2-10 cm high; 3-10 cm wide; sparingly to repeatedly branched.

2. 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.

3. Base

   When present 0.5-3 cm long; up to about 0.5 cm wide; white (gray to black when parasitized).

4. Flesh

   Whitish; fairly brittle.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. 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.

7. Chemical Reactions

   Irons salts negative on branches.

8. 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

1. Clavulina cinerea

   Darker in color.

2. Ramaria stricta

   Has parallel branches and grows on wood.

3. Ramariopsis kunzei

   Similar, but the ends of the twigs are blunt or simply pointed.

4. 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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