Clavulinopsis corniculata: The Ultimate Mushroom Guide

About The Clavulinopsis corniculata Mushroom

Clavulinopsis corniculata, with its yellow colors and delicate branching, is fairly distinctive among corals and clubs. It is common in unimproved grassland, including old lawns. Because it also occurs in woodland clearings, there is a chance of confusion with Yellow Stagshorn, Calocera viscosa. In long grass, the fruit body is often tall and sparsely branching, whereas, in close-cropped turf, such as that shown here, it is nearly always much more coral-like.

This coral mushroom habitat in most parts of Europe. Clavulinopsis corniculata seems to be much rarer in the warmer countries of southern Europe. This species is also recorded in North America and many other temperate parts of the world.

Other names: Meadow Coral

Clavulinopsis corniculata Identification

1. Ecology

   Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously under hardwoods or conifers in woods, or grassy areas; often in the disturbed ground; summer and fall, or overwinter in warmer climates; widely distributed in North America.

2. Fruiting Body

   2-9 cm high; sparingly to moderately branched; delicate.

3. Branches

   Smooth; yellow; tips colored like the sides.

4. Base

   1-4 cm long; 1-5 mm thick; often tapering to base; yellow above, covered with white mycelium below; sometimes absent or rudimentary.

5. Flesh

   Pale yellow.

6. Odor and Taste

   Odor mealy; taste mealy or bitter.

7. Chemical Reactions

   Iron salts olive on branches. KOH orange on branches.

8. Spore Print

   White.

9. Microscopic Features

   Spores 4.5-7 µ; globose or subglobose; smooth; with a prominent apiculus 1-1.5 µ long. Basidia 4-spored; up to 80 µ long. Clamp connections are present, but often not particularly conspicuous.

Clavulinopsis corniculata Look-Alikes

1. Clavulinopsis fusiformis

   Is golden yellow and also appears in unimproved grassland, but it branches only very occasionally and then always near its much more pointed tips.

2. Calocera viscosa

   A wood-rotting woodland fungus with viscid, rubbery antler-like fruit bodies.

Clavulinopsis corniculata Taxonomy & Etymology

Although Carl Linnaeus had earlier described this species, its first valid name, Clavaria corniculata, dates from 1821, when Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described this coral fungus in his Systema Mycologicum.

In 1955 British mycologist Edred John Henry Corner (1906 - 1996) transferred this species to the genus Clavulinopsis, at which point its currently accepted scientific name Clavulinopsis corniculata was created.

Synonyms of Clavulinopsis corniculata include Clavaria fastigiata L., Clavaria corniculata Fr., Ramaria corniculata (Fr.) Gray, Ramaria pratensis Gray, and Clavulinopsis corniculata f. bispora Corner ex Pilát.

The origin of the generic name is the Latin noun clava meaning a club, with the suffix implying that it looks quite similar to species in the genus Clavulina. The Clavulinopsis genus is closely related to Clavulina and Clavaria, but fungi in the Clavulinopsis group have tougher, less brittle fruitbodies that are solid rather than hollow in structure. The most obvious microscopic difference is that Clavulinopsis species have clamp-connections in the tramal tissues.

The specific epithet corniculata also comes from Latin and is a reference to horns, in this case in the form of branching antlers.