Clavaria zollingeri
The violet coral, Clavaria zollingeri Lév.
Credit: Dr. Robert Thomas and Dorothy B. Orr © 2001 California Academy of Sciences
Source: CalPhotos
Clavaria lavendula Pk.
N.Y. St. Mus. Bull. 139:47 (1910)
Common name
Violet coral
Description
Fruiting body: 1.5-7 cm tall, 0.2-0.5 cm thick, coralloid, brittle, color various shades of lavender, lilac or purple, cylindric, generally lighter towards base; branches 3-6 mm wide, appearing dichotomous in 1-4 ranks with internodes progressively shorter toward apex; apices dilated, frequently truncate or convex; ends single, rounded and brownish.
Stem: indistinguishable.
Odor and taste: mild.
Spore print: white.
Spores: ellipsoid to subglobose, smooth, hyaline, thin-walled, nonamyloid, 4-7 x 3-5 µm.
Edibility: inedible.
Habitat: single, clustered to caespitose on ground in coniferous and mixed forests; fruiting in summer and fall.
Medicinal properties
Antitumor effects
Polysaccharides extracted from the mycelial culture of C. zollingeri and administered intraperitoneally into white mice at a dosage of 300 mg/kg inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich solid cancers by 80% and 70%, respectively (Ohtsuka et al., 1973).
Links
Mushroom Expert
Roger's Mushrooms
References
Ohtsuka S, Ueno S, Yoshikumi C, Hirose F, Ohmura Y, Wada T, Fujii T, Takahashi E.
Polysaccharides having an anticarcinogenic effect and a method of producing them from species of Basidiomycetes.
UK Patent 1331513, 26 September 1973.Roger's Mushrooms
Olexia PD. (1968).
The genus Clavaria sensu strictu in North America.
University of Tennessee PhD thesis. 94 pp.
Last modified: 09-Oct-2008
