Clavarias of the United States and Canada 133 



Clavaria subspinulosa n. sp. 



Plates 44, 45, and 86 



Plants 6-10.5 cm. high, 3.5-7 cm. broad, stem distinct, usually 

 not smooth but roughly felted, rather stout, about 2 cm. long and 

 1-2 cm. thick in middle, more or less grooved by descending ridges 

 from the main branches, tapering downward, the base rounded or 

 moderately pointed, scarcely or shallowly inserted, connected to 

 the humus with fibrous strands like small rootlets; main branches 

 few and short, their angles open and rounded, or rather closely 

 or even densely packed, several times rebranched and finally 

 terminating in a cluster of slender, delicate tips ; often longitudi- 

 nally rugose-wrinkled in the upper half ; frequently several plants 

 are partly fused at the base as in C. formosa, but never in the 

 dense clumps often found in the latter; color when young a pale, 

 lavender-pink above, shading downward through light cinnamon 

 to the cinnamon-brown to sayal brown stem ; or the stem may be 

 at times a paler cinnamon-buff, not pure white at base even in the 

 paler forms; at maturity the upper part of the plant darkens to 

 pinkish cinnamon, a brownish pink-cinnamon (between ochraceous 

 salmon and light ochraceous buff of Ridgway), the angles deeper 

 colored from the spores (the lavender-pink color is quite obvious 

 at the tips in youth but is scarcely noticeable at maturity) ; in age 

 the color becomes a darker fleshy brown. Flesh opaque, colored 

 like the surface when fresh and damp, whitish when less damp, 

 moderately brittle, taste decidedly acid-bitterish, odor faintly 

 musty like rotten wood ; when dried the flesh is chalky and friable 

 as in C. formosa; hyphae of flesh not parallel, much branched, 

 4-8[i. thick. 



Spores (of No. 2664) elliptic, nearly smooth. 4-5x9-10.5^. 

 Basidia 7-8.3;/. with 4 sterigmata; hymenium about 90\l thick, mul- 

 tiple, containing many embedded spores. 



Not rare in pine or mixed or deciduous woods in July and 

 August. 



This species is nearest C. formosa from which it is easily dis- 

 tinguished by the lavender-pink tips in youth, the scurfy-felted, 

 cinnamon colored and less pointed stem and by the smoother and 

 somewhat shorter spores. In youth the color above the base is 

 much lighter than in C. formosa, which is a clear pink with the 

 tips often yellowish, the white base contrasting strongly, while in 



