Multiclavula mucida
Synonyms
Clavaria mucida
Family
Clavulinaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous/lignicolous (rarely saxicolous) habit; simple, white to greyish or tan, waxy to often slimy basidiomata; basidia short, 4–6-sterigmate; and basidiospores ovoid to ellipsoidal, without oil bodies to 1–2-guttulate, 4.5–7.5 × 1.5–3 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Yakas Track), Auckland (Waitakere Ranges). South Island: Nelson (Graham River Valley, Reefton), Canterbury (Nina Valley), Otago (Rees Valley, Mt Cargill, Dunedin).
Known also from Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Tibet, Japan, and Australia (Tasmania).
Habitat
On rotting logs in beech forest and northern coastal forest. Rarely on rocks in forest.
Detailed description
Fruiting bodies simple to 2 cm tall, waxy tough to often slimy, white to translucent, creamish, darkening to grey or pale tan with age, often with a pure white apex on drying. Contextual hyphae generally parallel but also interwoven, thin to slightly thick-walled, slightly to heavily agglutinated, bearing clamp connections throughout, cells long, to 200 µm, branches and anastomoses abundant. Subhymenial hyphae thin-walled, tortuous, clamped, parallel to contextual hyphae; producing basidia as side branches; cells to 25 × 1.5-3 µm. Basidia short and narrow (15-25 × 4-6 µm) with a small, basal clamp connection, 4-6-sterigmate; sterigmata to 4 µm long, spindly, slightly incurved, easily collapsed. No differentiated sterile elements in hymenium. Spores ovoid to ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, aguttulate to 1-2-guttulate, 4.5-7.7 × 1.8-3.2 µm.
Similar taxa
Basidiomycete fungi in the family Typhulaceae can have similar club-shaped or narrowly cylindrical basidiocarps (fruiting bodies), but they are saprotrophic and tend to occur on decomposing leaves, twigs and herbaceous material.
Substrate
Terricolous, saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (26 August 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (1985, 2007)
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 1985: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens. Wellington: PD Hasselberg, Government Printer. 662 pp.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.