Monday, April 7, 2014

First Monday Mushroom: Violet Coral

The Violet Coral, Clavaria zollingeri, is a clavaroid, or club, fungus that is named because of its vibrant purple hued fruiting bodies.
Clavaria zollingeri 90973
Violet Coral, Clavaria zollingeri
Being saprobic, the violet coral is generally found near crops of hardwoods or around mosses, where it breaks down organics in the soil. Its distribution is wide, being found from Australia, to North America, to Asia, and rarely even in Europe.

Classification
Kingdom:....... ...Fungi
   Division:....... ...Basidiomycota
        Class: ......   ...Agaricomycetes
         Order:.....    ....Agaricales
          Family:.....     ......Clavariaceae
             Genus:....        ........Clavaria
              Species:..            ......C. zollingeri

Photo Cred:  By This image was created by user Dan Molter (shroomydan) at Mushroom Observer, a source for mycological images. You can contact this user here. [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons