Macrotyphula fistulosa (Pipe Club)

Fungus of the month: October 2010

Old scientific names include Clavaria fistulosa, Clavariadelphus fistulosus and Clavaria ardenia

This slender pinkish buff or tawny club fungus is found in damp litter, often on fallen twigs, under trees in woodland. It generally grows to about 15cm high although it can be taller or shorter depending on the situation. It can be very slender looking almost like a leaf stalk but usually has a radius of half to one centimetre. It particularly likes beech but can also be found under birch and other broadleaved trees. The club shaped fruit bodies are easy to overlook and this probably explains why there are so few records. If you look closely at the base you will see that the bottom few centimetres are smooth and slightly more slender than the upper parts. This reflects the infertile supporting base and the fertile upper part.

The Pipe Club is a saprotrophic or ‘recycler’ fungus, which is breaks down dead plant material. Fungi are the only group of organisms that can break down lignin and without them we would be buried under many metres of woody debris. They also play a vital role in driving the carbon cycle, releasing nutrients that they don’t require back into the habitat. Photo (right) by Rosemary Smith.

Fruiting: appears mostly in the late autumn

Habitat: on fallen twigs and litter in deciduous woodland

Distribution: (Checklist of the British and Irish Basidiomycota Legon & Henrici 2005): Scotland (Wales / NI) – present frequency unknown. England - common.

The total number of records for this species on the Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland is 482 with 30 or those originating in Scotland.

In the North East of Scotland this species has been recorded from Aden, Castle Fraser, Fetteresso, Leith Hall, Quithel and a scatter of other sites. This species is almost certainly overlooked as was discovered on Speyside when somebody went out specifically to look for it and found it in 6 of the 7 woodlands that he looked in! It would be nice to see if this species really is less common in Scotland than England or whether that is just an artefact of recording effort.