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 Ramariopsis alutacea
BiostatusPresent in region - Indigenous. Endemic
Article: Petersen, R.H. (1988). The clavarioid fungi of New Zealand. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bulletin 236: 170 pp. Wellington:.
Description: Fruit bodies up to 3.0 x 1.2 cm, branched, arbuscular, arising from small white mycelial patches. Stipe up to 12 x 3 mm, discrete, white or whitish ("pale pinkish cinnamon") at base and there villous, upward tan. Branches dichotomous, terete, arising rather abruptly, tan to pallid tan ("light ochraceous buff") when young, fleshy tan, ("cinnamon-buff", "tawny olive", "clay-color", "pinkish buff", "sayal-brown") when mature; axils rounded; internodes all short, diminishing gradually. Apices awl-shaped, slender, somewhat paler tan ("light ochraceous buff") than branches. Taste and odour negligible.
Macrochemical reaction: FCL on hymenium very pale grey to slate-olive.
Tramal hyphae of branches hardly inflated, hyaline to yellowish in mass, clamped, parallel, free. Subhymenium rudimentary, of tortuous, uninflated hyphae. Hymenium thickening; basidia 35-60 x 7-8 gm, clavate, attenuate downward, clamped, hyaline; contents homogeneous to finally guttulate, with scattered refringent guttules; sterigmata 4, stout, up to 8 gm long, curved-ascending. Basidioles abundant, appearing as leptocystidia or paraphyses. Sclerified basidia occasional (cf. TENN no. 43470).
Spores 5.8-6.8 x 5.0-6.1 gm (E _ 1.00-1.21; E°' = 1.13; L°' = 6.19 gm), globose to very broadly ovate, smooth, non-reactive in IKI, thin-walled, hyaline; contents opalescent; hilar appendix prominent, conical, up to 1.5 gm long.
Habitat: On woody debris.
Notes: This taxon is very similar to others in the Ramariopsis corniculata complex, of which Clavaria pallidorosea Fawc. and R. alcicornis (Zoll. & Mor.) Pet. are Pacific representatives. Another taxon, with light brownish orange fruit bodies, as yet unpublished, fruits in the Himalayas (specimen: PAN no. 22270).
Spores are typical of the group - virtually globose, with prominent hilar appendix, and non-reactive in IKI. The positive FCL reaction is typical of the Comphaceae, in which I consider the complex to be best placed.
Collection TENN no. 43466 is identical micromorphologically, and in stature, but paler (branches and tips "pale pinkish cinnamon" to "pale ochraceous buff"; downward "light ochraceous buff"), and with a bitter taste. It cannot currently qualify as a separate taxon.
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