Harper: The Clavaria fistulosa Group 



55 



Clavaria macrorrhiza Sw. PI. 4, B 



One of the plants sent me by Professor Dearness had a long 

 rooting base. It is shown in the photograph. The top of the 

 club was broken off, but Professor Dearness informs me it was 

 about five inches long when collected. The plant appears to 

 represent Clavaria macrorrhiza, which is described as " simple, 

 fistulose, glabrous, subequal or somewhat thickened upward, ob- 

 tuse, yellowish becoming fuscous, twisted below, rooted with a 

 long whitish-fibrillose root." The root is said to be over three 

 inches long and the club is 2-4 inches high. Swartz's illustration 

 in Vet. Akad. Handl. pi. 6, f. 1 , shows the long root perpendicular 

 as if it grew straight down into the ground. The whole root is 

 covered with long, white, villous hairs like those on the bases of 

 the plants in our photographs of Clavaria ardenia, which seems 

 to show that it grew attached to sticks or logs in leaf-cold. The 

 hairs have collapsed in the dried plant from which the photograph 

 was taken and do not show very plainly in the picture. Von 

 Hoehnel in the Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschrift for December, 1904, 

 argues that Clavaria macrorrhiza is a form of Clavaria fistulosa 

 with a long root, and compares the roots of Collybia esculenta 

 and Collybia conigena, which are long or short according to cir- 

 cumstances. He had not, however, found a plant with such a 

 root. 



Clavaria contorta Holmsk. PL 4, C 



I collected the specimens from which the photographs were 

 taken on branches of dead alder at Neebish, Michigan, in Octo- 

 ber, 191 1, and identified them as Clavaria contorta. The figures 

 are reproduced natural size. The plants were on branches of a 

 fallen tree above ground and I did not connect them with 

 Clavaria fistulosa, which I have always found on sticks buried in 

 leaves in coniferous woods. Von Hoehnel in the article men- 

 tioned above holds that Clavaria contorta is a young stage of 

 Clavaria fistulosa and since reading his arguments I am inclined 

 to agree that at least they belong to the same group. The tall, 

 straight plant is very much like Clavaria fistulosa. The club is 

 hollow with a very thin wall just like the section of Clavaria 

 ardenia shown in the frontispiece. The substance of both is com- 



