Sebacina incrusting (Sebacina incrustans)
Synonyms:
-
Sebacin enveloping
- Corticium incrustans
- Thelephora incrustans
- Thelephora incrvstans
- Clavaria laciniata
- Merisma cristatum
- Merisma serratum
- Thelephora sebacea
- Corticium deglubens
- Irpex hypogaeus
- Irpex hypogeus Fuckel
- Thelephora gelatinosa
- Dacrymyces albus
- Clavaria rivalis
- Sebacina bresadolae
Description
The fungus forms mycorrhiza with all types of plants and plant debris (herbs, twigs, leaves). It can crawl to the ground, litter or even climb the stems of shrubs and trees.
Fruiting bodies are rezupinatny (spread over the substrate), as they develop, acquire a certain coral-like shape, although the word 'coral' is somewhat incorrect: the form of sebacin encrusted in an adult state is very diverse. Irregular branch-like processes may be pointed at the ends, fan-shaped, or resemble a fringe. The surface of these 'branches' is dull, smooth, without scales or hairs, wavy or with small tubercles.
Fruit body sizes: 5-15, up to 20 centimeters. Color: white, whitish, white-yellow, not bright. With age, dull yellow, light beige, maybe with a pinkish tinge, especially at the edges of the 'twigs'.
Pulp: cartilaginous, waxy-cartilaginous, gelatinous, rubbery-gelatinous. Various sources indicate different degrees of fragility and cartilage, from gelatinous-waxy to cartilaginous consistency. Perhaps this is due to the age of the fungus, or it may depend on the substrate.
Taste and smell: not pronounced, without a special taste and smell. Sometimes the taste is described as 'watery' and 'sour'.
Spore powder: white. Spores: transparent, smooth, hyaline, broadly ellipsoidal, 14-18 x 9-10μm
Season and distribution
Cosmopolitan. Widely distributed throughout the world, in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Grows in forests of any type from June to September. There is information that S. incrustans is found in some European countries with warm climates in spring.
Edibility
The mushroom is not consumed. No data on toxicity.
Similar species
Sebacin encrusted is one of the species of the genus Sebacina. Other species, of which there are few, about a dozen, form either completely resupinate fruiting bodies (adjacent to the substrate without processes), or with 'branches' that differ in shape or color.
The adult fruiting bodies of S. incrustans may be mistaken for Telephoru, however, one should pay attention to the tops of the branches, they are usually whitish in Telephors; the flesh of the telephora is more 'leathery' than 'gristly'; and, finally, the telephores do not envelop the substrate, the twigs grow from a common base.
Other information
During growth, sebacin encrusted often crawls onto living plants, envelops the trunks of young trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, which can lead to the death of the plant.
Photo: I.
