172 Minnesota Plant Diseases, 



and not a few timber diseases can be traced to this group. Most 

 forms are, however, saprophytes. The common smothering- 

 fungus which is found at the base of young shrubs and trees is a 

 smooth-shelf fungus. (Figs. 81, 82, 117, 118.) 



Club fungi (Clavariacece). As the common name implies, 

 these fungi have club-shaped fruiting bodies. The club in some 

 forms is single and thus simple. In other forms it may be 

 branched and the most common of our club fungi are very 

 abundantly branched thus forming dense tufts. The palisade 

 surface is usually confined to the upper part of the club 

 which is in general smooth, so that one may consider these club 



FIG. 82. A smothering fungus (Thelephora laciniata), growing on the ground. The 

 fruiting body has narrow shelf-like divisions. Original. 



fungi as but modifications of a similar scheme of fruiting body 

 to that of the smooth shelves but of a special kind. The basidia 

 are of the usual type and the spores vary from white to yellow. 

 The clubs are sometimes hollow and very brittle, in other cases 

 they are solid and fleshy. All of our club fungi are saprophytes 

 inhabiting decaying wood or ground where wood has been scat- 

 tered. They vary in size from tiny thread-like cylindrical clubs, 

 on the one hand to large single clubs measuring six inches in 

 length and one inch in thickness and on the other hand to clus- 

 ters of branched clubs six to eight inches in diameter and even 

 larger. One little club, not commonly, but occasionally, found 

 in Minnesota, has a swollen and somewhat convoluted club top 



