On this particular gathering extravaganza we had been excited because we discovered some tiny orange earthtongues; but a few steps later the woods stopped us as if to say "You ain't seen nothing yet."
Figure 1. The massive twisted earthtongue Neolecta irregularis
Name: Neolecta irregularis
Family: Neolectaceae
Collection Date: 10/11/2011
Habitat: “Widely scattered to gregarious or occasionally tufted on ground, moss, or duff, usually under conifers; widely distributed” (Arora, 1986).
Location: Hiram College Field Station
Description: “Fruiting body 1-7 cm tall, clublike to very irregular (grooved, twisted, etc.)… fertile surface bright yellow or orange-yellow… flesh rather tough” (Arora, 1986).
Collector: Andrew Burns
Key Used: Arora. D., (1986) Mushrooms Demystified 2nd Edition, Ten Speeds Press, New York, NY
Keying Notes:
Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi… p.52
Helotiales (Earthtongues)…p.865
1b. Fruiting body without a clearly differentiated, rounded to convex or wrinkled cap…4
4b. Flesh not gelatinous or rubbery…5
5b. Fruiting body erect…6
6b. Fruiting body without large internal chambers…7
7b. Fruiting body lighter, brighter colored…p. 868, Microglossum, Spathularia, & Allies
1b. Fruiting body not green…3
3b. “Head” absent…5
5b. Fruiting body lacking a sharply differentiated ‘head;’ not growing in water…8
8b. Fruiting body not pallid, ochre, or ‘dingy yellow,’ terrestrial…9
9a. Fruiting body bright yellow to orange…10
10b. Variable in shape (in this case twisted)…11
11a. Fruiting body very irregular in shape (lobed, forked, flattened, twisted, etc)…p. 871, Neolecta irregularis & others
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