Small Stagshorn

Description

The small stagshorn is a tiny, gelatinous fungus shaped like a yellow or yellow-orange club or awl, 1–2 cm tall and only a few millimetres thick. The surface is smooth and becomes sticky in the rain. It is usually unbranched, and several fruiting bodies often grow from one base.

It grows in groups on dead wood of broadleaved trees: on stumps, trunks and branches, in deciduous and mixed forests and in parks. It is common in Poland, and fruiting bodies can be found all year round, most often from spring to autumn.

It can be told apart from the other stagshorns by size and shape: Calocera viscosa is much larger and bushy-branched, Calocera furcata is thicker, shorter, forked and grows on conifers, and Calocera glossoides is broad relative to its height. The fungus is inedible.

Identification features

Cap

No cap: the fruiting body is gelatinous, club-shaped or awl-shaped, usually unbranched and straight, with a blunt or tapering tip. Height 1–2 cm, thickness about 1–3 mm. The surface is bare and smooth, yellow to yellow-orange, and sticky in wet weather. Several fruiting bodies often grow from one common base.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

No gills, tubes or spines. The hymenium covers the sides of the fruiting body.

Stem

No distinct stem; the fruiting body is a uniform club, attached to the wood by its base.

Flesh

Gelatinous, with a mild taste and no smell. The flesh should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print colour: no data. Spores sausage-shaped, smooth, 7.5–9.5 × 3–4 µm. Each basidium produces and actively discharges only two spores.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph on dead wood of broadleaved trees: trunks, stumps and branches. Usually grows in groups.

Distribution. Occurs on all continents except Antarctica, including many islands. Common in Poland, in deciduous and mixed forests and in parks. It is not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. Fruiting bodies can appear all year round, mainly from spring to autumn.

What can it be confused with?

• Calocera furcata (Polish: pięknoróg dwuprzegrodowy) — The most similar species. Its spores have 1–3 septa, the fruiting body is thicker, shorter and usually forked; it grows on conifers.
• Calocera viscosa (Polish: pięknoróg największy) — Larger and bushy-branched; grows on dead wood of conifers.
• Calocera glossoides (Polish: pięknoróg językowaty) — Small, but broad relative to its height.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The basidia of fungi in the order Dacrymycetales are fork-shaped ("tuning fork"), and each produces and discharges only two spores.
• Originally described by Batsch as Clavaria cornea; Elias Fries moved it to the genus Calocera in 1827.
• In Polish literature it is also called goździeniec wiązkowy, goździeniec bruzdowany and pięknoróg rogowaty; the current name was given by Franciszek Błoński in 1896.
• It occurs on all continents except Antarctica.