Clavaria fumosa

Description

Clavaria fumosa is a species of coral fungus in the family Clavariaceae. It is an off-white, grayish, dirty yellowish, or dirty pinkish club fungus that grows in dense clusters on the ground, turns green when iron salts are applied to its surfaces, turns dark reddish-brown when dried for the herbarium, and has the microscopic features listed in the description below.

Clavaria fumosa is said to be edible, but as a relatively scarce and small species then their collection for culinary uses is not thought to be worthwhile. Others consider it to be inedible.

Common names: Smoky Clavaria, Smoky Spindles.

Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Saprobic; growing in dense clusters; usually found in woods, frequently in the presence of grass or moss; summer and fall; northeastern North America, the Great Lakes region, and the southern Appalachians.

2. Fruiting Body

   2-14 cm high; 2-5 mm wide; more or less cylindrical, with a tapered base; only rarely branched, near the tip; sometimes flattened or grooved; smooth; dry or moist; fairly brittle; the tip bluntly pointed; grayish, off-white, dirty yellowish, or dirty pinkish, with a whiter base; the tip becoming dark reddish-brown to black with age.

3. Flesh

   Colored like the surface; insubstantial.

4. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. Chemical Reactions

   Irons salts green on surfaces.

7. Microscopic Features

   Spores 5-8 x 3-4 µ; ellipsoid to pip-shaped; smooth; with a small apiculus. Basidia subclavate; 30-50 x 6-8 µ; 4-sterigmate; not basally clamped. Clamp connections absent; hyphae often constricted at the septa.

Look-Alikes

1. Clavaria vermicularis

   Is bright white, does not change color with iron salts, and turns dirty brownish-yellow ("ochraceous") when dried - though it does grow in dense clusters and its microscopic features are virtually identical.

2. Clavaria fragilis

   Similar but has white spindly fruit bodies.

3. Clavulinopsis fusiformis

   Has a similar form but is golden yellow.

History

Some club-like and coral-like fungi are ascomycetous, but fairy clubs of Clavaria and related genera belong to the Basidiomycota.

Smoky Spindles was originally described in 1795 by Christian Hendrik Persoon, who gave this species its currently accepted scientific name. The name Clavaria fumosa was later sanctioned by the great Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries in his landmark publication Systema Mycologicum of 1821.

Synonyms of Clavaria fumosa include Clavaria striata Pers.

The generic name Clavaria comes from the Latin clava, meaning a club. Not quite so obvious, but again from Latin, is the specific epithet fumosa, which means smoky.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Garrett Taylor (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: R. DN. (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Clavaria_fumosa_77364.jpg: (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Karen (oldmanofthewoods) (CC BY-SA 3.0)