Clavulinopsis fusiformis

The yellow spindle coral, Clavulinopsis fusiformis (Sowerby) Corner.

Classification

Kingdom Fungi
Phylum Basidiomycota
Class Basidiomycetes
Order Agaricales
Family Clavariaceae
Genus Clavulinopsis

Synonyms

Clavaria ceranoides Pers.
  Syn. meth. fung. (Göttingen) 2: 594 (1801)
Clavaria compressa Schwein.
  Trans. Am. phil. Soc., New Series 4(2): 182 (1832)
Clavaria fusiformis Sowerby
  Coloured Figures of English Fungi 2: 98 (1799) [1798-99]
Clavaria fusiformis var. ceranoides W.G. Sm.
  Brit. Basid.: 434 (1908)
Clavaria inaequalis var. fusiformis (Sowerby) Fr.
  Elench. fung. (Greifswald) 1: 231 (1828)
Clavaria platyclada Peck
  Bull. Torrey bot. Club 23: 419 (1896)
Ramaria ceranoides (Pers.) Gray
  Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. (London) 1: 655 (1821)
Ramariopsis fusiformis (Sowerby) R.H. Petersen
  Mycologia 70(3): 668 (1978)

Common names

Yellow spindle coral
Golden fairy spindle
Tongues of flame
Slender golden fingers

Description

Fruiting body: 2-8 cm high, 0.2-0.6 cm diameter, bright yellow, cylindrical, unbranched, often laterally compressed and grooved, tips blunt or pointed, becoming reddish to brown in age; no obvious distinction between fruiting body and stem.
Flesh: solid in younger specimens, hollow in age.
Spores: smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, globose to sub-globose with distinct apiculus, entire, non-amyloid, with droplets, 5-6.5 x 4.5-6 µm.
Spore print: buff.
Odor: not distinctive.
Taste: slightly bitter.
Edibility: edible or inedible, depending on the guidebook you use; not poisonous.
Habitat: typically in clusters on soil in grasslands, humus, in light forests under conifers, or in fields; late summer to autumn.
Chemical tests: flesh turns green in ferric sulphate.

Biochemistry

The extract of Clavulinopsis fusiformis was shown to contain lectins with an anti-B agglutinin specificity (Furukawa et al., 1995).

Medicinal properties

Antitumor effects

Polysaccharides extracted from the mycelial culture of C. fusiformus 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% (Ohtsuka et al., 1973).

Links

Mushroom Expert and California Fungi have additional descriptive information. American mushrooms has a number of additional photos.

References

Furukawa K, Ying R, Nakajima T, Matsuki T.
Hemagglutinins in fungus extracts and their blood group specificity.
Exp Clin Immun. 1995 12(4):223-31.

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.