1921] The Thelephoraceae of North Carolina 185 



689. On dead sweetgum, December 3, 1912. Photo. 



Blowing Rock. On rotting wood. Atkinson. 

 Common, on logs and limbs. Curtis. 



THELEPHORA 



Plants tough, leathery, fan-shaped, or funnel-shaped, or much 

 branched; hymenium smooth or somewhat wrinkled, covering only 

 the interior (or outer) surface in most species, but clothing all but 

 the stalk in a few branched forms; basidia simple; spores colored, 

 rough or spiny. A few branched kinds as T. palmata and T. antho- 

 cephala have the form of Clavarias but are distinguished from these 

 by the tough, leathery texture and very dark spores. Lachnocladium 

 forms of Clavaria approach these in texture, but have light spores. 

 (See Burt, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 1: 199. 1914, for a full treatment of 

 the genus in North America.) 



Key to the North Carolina Species * 



Plants stalked and upright, growing on the ground 



Branched like a tree or shrub and rather stout, 3-6.5 cm. 

 high. 



Odor very strong and foetid T. pahnata (1) 



Odor none T. multipartita (2) 



Branched like a tree or shrub, slender, 1.5-2.7 cm. high T. caespitulans* 



Simple, small, flattened and broadened upward T. regularis (4) 



Simple, or lobed, expanded above into more or less com- 

 plete shallow, thin and pliable cups. In pine or cedar 

 woods or open fields. 

 Cap not zoned, fibrous-squamulose, margin fimbriate. . .T. terrestris (5) 

 Cap zoned, inherently squamulose, margin even at ma- 

 turity T. intyhacea (6) 



Cap zoned, silky fibrous, margin fimbriate T. griseozonata (7) 



Expanding above into a complicated mass of concen- 

 tric plates, lobes or tubercles, thick and firm T. vialis (3) 



Plants laterally sessile, bracketed, growing on wood or up 

 from the ground onto bases of stems. Sometimes cen- 

 trally stalked and expanded into a cup above when grow- 

 ing upright. 



* Thelephora caespitulans has not been found in North Carolina, but should be looked for 

 as it occurs both north and south of us. We take the following from Burt (1. c. 1 : 204. 

 1914): "Fructification erect, coriaceous, dusky drab to oUve-brown below, paler above, 

 very much branched, forming clusters 2}4 cm. high by 2}/^ cm. broad; pileus with numerous 

 divisions joined together into a solid base but assurgent above and pressed together closely 

 compressed, subcanaliculate, frequently obtuse and whitish at the apex; hymenium amplii- 

 genous: spores umbrinous imder the microscope, sparingly tuberculate, 7-8 X 5-6M. On the 

 grovmd in mixed woods, Vermont to South Carolina, and in dense coniferous woods, Wash- 

 ington. September. Rare. Tliis species is related to T. palmata but is more olivaceous, 

 and it is probably inodorous, — at least no odor has been noted." 



