Macrotyphula juncea (Fries) Berthier

Common Name: none

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body a slender, erect, strand, 3-8 cm tall, 0.5-1.5 mm thick, subpliant, stuffed at maturity, straight to curved, the tip obtuse; upper half to two-thirds, fertile, not well differentiated from the sterile base; surface of fertile region more or less glabrous, cream-buff to pale ochraceous-brown, the sterile portion slightly darker, sparsely villose, the base usually swollen and conspicuously pubescent; context thin, colored like the surface; odor and taste mild.

• Spores

  Spores 6.0-8.0 x 3.5-5.5 µm, broadly ellipsoid in face-view, tear-shaped in side-view, smooth, hilar appendage conspicuous; spore print white.

• Habitat

  In groups on conifer and hardwood duff, common on fallen branchlets of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), also on leaves of Tanbark Oak and LiveOak (Lithocarpus densiflora and Quercus agrifolia); fruiting from late fall to mid-winter.

• Edibility

  Unknown; totally insignificant.

• Comments

  Were it not for a gregarious fruiting habit, the pale strands of Macrotyphula juncea would go unnoticed by most mycophiles. This diminutive coral fungus fruits only in dark, moist places, a favorite habitat, duff in the shade of Coast Redwood, (Sequoia sempervirens). Typhula species are similar but arise from a grain-like sclerotium. An Ascomycete, Xylaria hypoxylon, bears a resemblance, but grows on decaying wood, not duff, and is colored differently, the base blackish, the slender apex powdery-white from asexual spores.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Michael Boom: Macrotyphula juncea (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Macrotyphula juncea (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Macrotyphula juncea (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Macrotyphula juncea (CP)
  • George Barron's Fungi of Canada (East): Macrotyphula juncea (D & CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Macrotyphula juncea (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 636 (D) p. 637 (P)
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol. 2): sp. 437 (D, I, & CP)
  • Phillips: p. 291 (D & CP)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)