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Small staghorn - Calocera cornea
This post will discuss the small staghorn or the Calocera cornea. It is important to note that the description paragraph at the top of this post is a more generalised description, other paragraphs will go into more detail.
Description
Calocera cornea can be found on the deadwood of deciduous broadleaf hardwood trees, especially oaks, after heavy rains. On this deadwood it emerges in groups of smooth and cylindric fruiting bodies with rounded-off, or sometimes sharper tips.¹
While this fungus looks more like a club fungus than a jelly fungus, it is in fact a jelly fungus. This fungus namely has more gelatinous flesh instead of it being brittle. Additionally, microscopic examination shows this fungus to have Y-shaped basidia that charachterise members of the Dacrymycetales - a large class within the jelly fungi. ²
Fruitbody, spores and microscopic features.
The small staghorn can be found clustered in non-merging groups.² This fungus has a cylindric fruiting body with a rounded or sharpened apex (tip), which occasionally is shallowly forked. It grows about 2 - 18 mm high and 1 to 2 mm thick. The surface of the body is bald and greasy¹, firm but gelatinous.² Its coloration ranges from orange to orangish yellow, depending on weather circumstances and age. In drier weather the fruiting body will turn more orange and with age the apex will shrivel and get an orangish brown hue. This fungus has white mycelium.¹
Calocera cornea's smooth spores are ellipsoidal to sausage-shaped and about 7-10 x 2.5-4um in size. The spores are hyaline and inamyloid (clear and not changing colour with Melzer's reagent). When fully mature, they will often become 1-septate (developing a single cross wall), like seen in the picture on the left below. The basidia are Y-shaped or two-spored, visible in the picture on the right below.²
Ecology and biological role
This species is saprobic, growing scattered to clustered on the deadwood of decidious broadleaf hardwoods. They are mostly found on sticks up to five cm in diameter.¹
The species is saprobic, meaning that it feeds on dead or decaying organic matter. The small staghorn grows on deadwood, making its biological role to decompose wood.³
Distribution
The small staghorn is widely distributed in Europe (it is quite common in Britain and Ireland²), North America, Central America, South America, Asia, and Oceania.¹
Season
The small staghorn fruits through most of the year in moist maritime climates (in Europe), but can mostly found during the autumn.
Similar species
Similar species include Calocera furcata, Calocera viscosa, Calocera pallidospathula and some of the Ramaria species.
Calocera furcata (seen on the first row on the right below) grows on conifer wood. Its spores septate three times, while the spores of Calocera cornea have one septum. ¹
Calocera viscosa (seen on the first row on the left below) is much larger, up to 8 cm tall, with orange fruiting bodies that are usually branched two or three times. It clusters, i, usually on moss-covered, buried conifer wood. ¹
Calocera pallidospathula (seen on the second row below) is initially translucent white, and only its tips become yellowish with age. ²
Calocera cornea might also be confused with some of the Ramaria (seen on the third row below) species of coral fungi, but its greasy surface and rubbery texture are distinguishing features. ²
Sources & references:
Calocera cornea:
Microscopic features images:
Calocera furcata:
Calocera viscosa:
Calocera pallidospathula:
Ramaria species:
Text sources:
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2.
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