Major Groups > Puffballs > Calostoma lutescens

MushroomExpert.Com

Calostoma lutescens

[ Basidiomycota > Boletales > Sclerodermataceae > Calostoma . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

This distinctive, funky fungus is fairly common in the southern Appalachians, but has been reported from Arkansas to Massachusetts. It looks like a little yellow globe with puckered red lips, sporting a tattered collar, held aloft by an odd pedestal of half-digested pasta. It's hard to imagine mistaking Calostoma lutescens for anything else, but Calostoma cinnabarinum is somewhat similar (differing in its red spore case and gelatinous sheath) and Calostoma ravenelii and Calostoma microsporum are very similar to the naked eye (differing in their lack of a collar and their ellipsoid, rather than round, spores).

Thanks to Gwenne Hayes-Stewart, Felicity Lien, and Dawn-Michelle Oliver for documenting, collecting, and preserving Calostoma lutescens for study; their collections are deposited in The Herbarium of Michael Kuo.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks; growing alone or gregariously; fall, or over winter in warm climates; apparently distributed from Arkansas to Massachusetts, but most common in the southern Appalachians. The illustrated and described collections are from Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Fruiting Body: Spore case round or nearly so, 10–15 mm across, orangish yellow, bald, with a ridged, crimson, beak-like opening; outer skin initially covering spore case but soon breaking apart to leave collar-like fragments at the base of the spore case, pale yellow, felt-like; interior powdery at maturity, ivory colored; stem 4–5 cm long, 1 cm thick, composed of longitudinal, interwoven yellowish strands; odorless.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5–9 µm; globose; regularly and deeply pitted (reminiscent of a golf ball); walls grayish to yellowish in KOH.


REFERENCES: (Schweinitz, 1822) Burnap, 1897. (Saccardo, 1888; Coker & Couch, 1928; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Bessette, Miller, Bessette & Miller, 1995; Hughey et al., 2000; Trierveiler-Pereira et al., 2013; Woehrel & Light, 2017; Sturgeon, 2018.) Herb. Kuo 09241110, 01271501, 10211901.


This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.


 

Calostoma lutescens

Calostoma lutescens

Calostoma lutescens

Calostoma lutescens

Calostoma lutescens

Calostoma lutescens

Calostoma lutescens
Spores



© MushroomExpert.Com




Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2019, November). Calostoma lutescens. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/calostoma_lutescens.html