Fungus Identification

[MESmith]

Anyone know what kind of fungus this is.  Just noticed it growing on bare soil in the garden, some near the house.  If you touch it, clouds of spore released.  Is it harmful to plants or soil?

[drtreelove]

I don't know it, but I've forwarded to Eric of Dokmai Garden in Chiang Mai. He's a PhD mycologist and should reply within a day or two; he's in China right now on a mushroom study.

[MESmith]

Thanks Doc, 

I've been googling & think it might be Clavaria plumbeoargillacea or something very similar.   Clavaria derived from the latin "clava", a club,  are saprotrophic, decomposing leaf litter and other organic materials.

[chinnotes]

Another possibility -but it is not more than a possibility- is genus Cordyceps. I found similar "mushrooms" in Trang, So., Thailand, but without the greenish-greyish things around them. Cordyceps is parasitic on buried beetle larva, moth's pupa etc. So Cordyceps may be excluded or verified if you dig out the "mushrooms". If you find a dead insect at its base then its most probably Cordyceps, if not, then it is something different. Cordyceps has a worldwide distribution and about 400 species...

But I am no specialist at all, and I am looking forward to what Eric of the Dogmai Garden in Chiengmai will tell us.

Erwin

[MESmith]

If you find a dead insect at its base then its most probably Cordyceps, if not, then it is something different. 

Just had a dig, no insects.....

[dokmaigarden]

Dear mushroom lovers,

We need to know more about the texture of the mushroom. Clavarias and Ramarias are brittle, while Xylarias are more 'woody' in their texture. There are some 72000 fungal species described in the world, but an estimated 1.5 million undescribed species remain, many in the tropics. Fungi are normal components of the soil. Their ability to degrade dead plant tissues is due to special enzymes in combination with an ability to mechanically break up tissues, something bacteria can not do. The fungi only become harmful if they degarde your house, or parasitise your plants. In this case, you seem safe.

Cheers, Eric Danell