Multiclavula vernalis
Fruit-bodies simple, to 20 mm high, clavate; colour creamy to fleshy cream or straw-orange when fresh, dull ochraceous orange when dry, then usually with a small white spot at the apex like a cap, soft and flexible, terrestrial, ephemeral. Hymenium extending over approximately the upper two thirds of the fruit-body. Basidia 7-20 x 4-7 μm, bearing a basal clamp connection, 4-sterigmate. Sterigmata to 7 μm long, spindly, slightly incurved. Tortuous sterile hyphal tips protrude from the young hymenium and among the basidia. Basidiospores 8-12 x 2.5-3.5 μm, ellipsoidal to elongate-ovoid, smooth, thin-walled, aguttulate, white in prints, bearing a small indistinct eccentric apiculus. Contextual hyphae somewhat parallel, loosely arranged toward the apex of the fruiting body, not agglutinated, short-celled (10-90 x 2-5 μm), thin- to slightly thick-walled; branching and anastomoses abundant. Subhymenial hyphae thin-walled, parallel to the contextual hyphae, bearing clamp connections throughout, producing basidia as side branches.
In GB&I, only known from one site in England (four patches), and four sites in Scotland. Assessed as Data Deficient in GB&I, and nationally rare in Scotland (Woods & Coppins 2012).
Other Multiclavula spp. are similar, but of these only M. mucida has been found in GB&I (two records, on very rotten wood covered with algae).
Lichenised with algae, forming a thallus on the soil/peat surface composed of a gelatinous film or crust, in which Coccomyxa-like algae are trapped.
In GB&I, reported from England (VC12 N Hampshire) and Scotland (VC104 North Ebudes, VC110 Outer Hebrides and VC112 Shetland ).
In England, associated with algal scum on blue-green patches of damp or wet peat, or peaty soil, sometimes co-occurring with Drosera (sundew) species or cyanobacteria.