106 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



Clavaria rufipes Atk. Ann. Myc. 6 : 57. 1908. 



Plate 91 



Plants isolated, sparsely gregarious, arising from a distinct 

 mycelial pad; slender and delicate, 1-2 cm. high, nearly filiform 

 when dry ; stem usually distinct from the club, 6-8 mm. long, pale 

 brown, enlarging into the creamy and very pale brownish flattened 

 club which expands above and divides in most cases into a few 

 crooked horns or thickish flattened lobes which may divide again ; 

 surface glabrous; texture pliable, but not tough, easily broken. 

 The dry plants have brown stems and dull ochraceous hymenium. 



Spores pip-shaped to ovate, smooth, hyaline under the micro- 

 scope, a distinct oil drop, 3-3.7 x 3.9-5. 5[A. Basidia about 4\l thick, 

 2-4-spored, the sterigmata often quite long, up to 10(j. ; hymenium 

 about 25{jl thick. 



The types of C. rufipes are like our plants and have identical 

 spores, smooth, pip-shaped to oval, 2.8-3 x 4.5-5. S\x. The fertile 

 parts of our plants have a little color, but are so pale as to make 

 only a slight discrepancy in color as described for the type. The 

 species seems related to C. delicata Fr., of which we have exam- 

 ined two lots from Fries, one at Kew and one in the Curtis Her- 

 barium. They recall our plants in appearance and have spores 

 exactly the same (in the Curtis specimens) or nearly the same (a 

 little longer in the Kew specimens). In the former they are 

 2.6-2.9 x4.4-5[jl; in the latter 2.5-3x5-6^ (pi. 91, fig. 9). The 

 branches are, however, more filiform and much longer, and are 

 not flattened, and Fries describes his species as villose below and 

 as white. Clavaria delicata is not known to occur in America. 



Atkinson's description follows : 



"Plants entirely white, base of stem tinged rufous, about 2 cm. 

 high, branched like Clavaria muscoides, tips blunt and slightly en- 

 larged. Basidia 4-spored. Spores oboval, granular, then with 

 an oil drop, smooth, 4-6 x 2.5-3^." 



Illustration: Burt. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 9 : pi. 6, fig. 43. 1922. 



North Carolina: Blowing Rock. Coker and party, No. 5501. On bits of 

 wood, twigs and leaves under Rhododendron, August 17. 1922. (U. N. 

 C. Herb.). 



New York: Ithaca. On ground in woods, October 10, 1902. Whetzel. 

 (Cornell Herb., No. 14037. Type). 



