CLAVARIACEAE 



479 



Fig. 157. Polyporales, Family Clavariaceae. Clavariella subbotrytis. (Courtesy, 

 Coker: The Clavarias of the United States and Canada, Chapel Hill, Univ. North 

 Carolina Press.) 



done for Sparassis by Cotton (1912) because the ultimate flattened 

 branches of the much ramose spore fruit of the latter bear their hymenium 

 on the lower surface only. Killermann (1928) retains both these genera in 

 the Clavariaceae. 



The larger forms of this family are clavate and unbranched or only 

 slightly branched or very much branched in a more or less coralloid 

 manner. Among the clavate forms is the very large Clavariadelphus 

 pistillaris (Fr.) Donk {Clavaria pistillaris), often up to 10 to 15 cm. tall 

 with a thickness of 2 to 3 cm. It is edible. In many ways it resembles 

 some of the members of Family Cantharellaceae but differs in possessing 

 chiastic instead of stiehic basidia. Somewhat smaller and usually brighter- 

 colored are the unbranched species of Clavaria which are not enlarged 

 much upwards and have smaller spores. Some species are much branched 

 and fleshy. Where the branching consists of very slender dry cartilaginous, 

 cylindrical and tapering branches, forming a bush-like structure we have 



