RBG Kew herbarium accession number K(M)167654. On soil with larch and Spathularia flavida. 18 September 2010 Hampshire. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. Cap Club shaped,slender, upper part covered with tiny dark dimples, white then brown, lower part remaining pale, to about 5 cm high Flesh Firm, white Smell Indistinct Taste Indistinct Season Autumn Distribution Rare Habitat On needle debris Spore Print White Microscopic Features Spores irregularly ellipsoidal to subspherical, finely warty (3.5-4.5) x (3-4) µm2. 16 spores per ascus. Paraphyses not seen. Edibility Inedible Notes I originally misidentified the specimen in the photo as Podostroma alutacea (recently renamed as Hypocrea alutacea). According to Thomas Læssøe "Your fungus would appear to match H. leucopus better than H. alutacea (this is a somewhat flattened, often slightly branches object on wood, often beech) whilst leucopus is slender, Cordyceps like and grows on needle debris. Both species occur in Denmark. Up north in Scandinavia two further \"Podostromas\" occur." . H. leucopus is not listed in the BMS fungal records database, which may well be due to confusion with Hypocrea alutacea. Ellis and Ellis, in Microfungi on Miscellaneous Substrates, appear to conflate the two species. |