Favolaschia calocera

Description

Favolaschia calocera is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae. It often has a bright yellow color at first, and can later appear in a brownish yellow color, though it often presents as a bright orange stalked fan, with prominent pores on the underside. It grows in large troops on logs and is very visible in the rainforest.

This mushroom colonizes ruderal sites along transport routes and can become dominant in habitats disturbed by human activity. Mycologists fear that it may be displacing native fungi species as it spreads through the paleotropics.

Common names: Orange Pore Fungus, Orange Pore Conch, Orange Ping-Pong Bat.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   0.5 to 2cm across; broadly convex, infertile surface (left) smooth when young then developing undulations in a pattern corresponding to the pores on the fertile surface; lobed either side of the lateral stem to for a kidney shape; bright orange when fres, turning brownish orange when dry.

2. Pores

   0.3 to 2.5mm across, larger ellipsoidal pores nearest to the stem and smaller more angular pores near the cap margin; bright orange.

3. Stem

   0.8 to 2.5mm diameter, 1.5 to 15mm long; cylindrical or tapering slightly towards apex; orange, smooth; no stem ring.

4. Cheilocystidia

   Cystidia on the pore edges are acanthocysts (cystidia covered in tiny rod-like projecting diverticulae); 8.5-14 x 35-52µm, mostly cylindrical to subclavate, apex rounded.

5. Pleurocystidia and pileocystidia

   Cystidia on the tube walls and in the pileipellis are mainly cylindrical or narrowly clavate gloeocysts (filled with oily/granular dark-colored material); 8.5-12.5µm diameter and typically 30µm long..

6. Spores

   Ovoid or ellipsoidal, smooth, 9-12.5 x 6.5-8.5µm; hyaline; weakly amyloid. (Basidia is mostly two-spored.)

7. Spore Print

   White.

Geographic Distribution

First observed in Madagascar, it is present in New Zealand since the 1950s, where it became an invasive species. It has recently spread around the world. In 1999 it was first found in Italy. The second european country where it appeared was Spain. There it was first found in 2004 near the Monte Deva, Gijon, by D. Francisco Casero, president of the Asturian Society of Mycology. In 2012 it was found in Great Britain and in 2013 it was sighted in Portugal. In 2015 it was found in France and Switzerland. In 2019 it was found in Belgium and in november 2020 it was found in the Netherlands, the most northerly known site until now.

Its distribution in America is not well documented, but it was collected in Venezuela, Brazil and Peru. It is also present in Costa Ricaand is widespread on the islands of Hawaii, although it had not been found there before 2009. It is also widespread in Australia and was first collected on Norfolk Island in 1994, but in opposition to its early spreading in New Zealand it was not collected in mainland Australia until the year 2004. It was also found on the French Islands Réunion Island and Mayotte, which are located near the mainland of Africa. There it was found in Kenya, DR Congo, Tanzania and Zambia. Its also present on the Seychelles. In Asia it was first found in Thailand and China with a high level of genetic variation between the collections. More recently, it was found in India and on the island of Sumatra. It is uncertain whether F. calocera is native to Madagascar or was introduced to the island from Asia.

History

French mycologist Roger Heim (1900 - 1979), who recorded this little wood-rotting fungus as early as 1945, created the first valid description of this species in 1966, giving it the scientific name Favolaschia calocera by which it is still known today.

The epithet calocera is the Latinized spelling of the ancient Greek word for "beautiful horn" (from ancient Greek καλός kalós "beautiful" and κέρας kéras "horn"). Calocera is actually the genus name of a fungal genus of its own, which was used here as a specific epithet because some structures of Favolaschia calocera—the basidia and sterigma—are reminiscent of the fungal genus Calocera when viewed through a microscope. The genus name Favolaschia was originally a subgenus of the now obsolete genus Laschia, which is named after the German botanist and mycologist Wilhelm Gottfried Lasch (1787-1863). The prefix Favo- is derived from the Latin word favus for "honeycomb".

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand (Public Domain)

Photo 2 - Author: Australocetus (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand (Public Domain)

Photo 4 - Author: Liz Popich (Lizzie) (CC BY-SA 3.0)