Calocera viscosa (Pers.) Fr. - Yellow Stagshorn

Phylum: Basidiomycota - Class: Dacrymycetes - Order: Dacrymycetales - Family: Dacrymycetaceae

Distribution - Taxonomic History - Etymology - Identification - Culinary Notes - Reference Sources

Calocera viscosa is greasy and therefore, in texture, unlike the true coral fungi. It is commonly known as Yellow Stagshorn, although the colour is more often pale orange. A white form also exists, but it is not a common find.

Hidden depths: there's a lot more of the fruitbody buried within the substrate

Confusion with yellow-orange species in the family Clavariaceae is avoided by checking the growing substrate: Calocera viscosa always grows on wood, although sometimes the substrate is not immediately evident if it has become buried beneath leaf litter or moss on the forest floor.

Distribution

Common and widespread throughout Britain and Ireland, this wood-rotting fungus is found in most parts of mainland Europe as well as in many other regions of the world including North America.

Taxonomic history

Yellow Stagshorn was described in 1794 by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, who gave it the binomial scientific name Clavaria viscosa. In 1827 the great Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries, who had established the genus Calocera in 1821, renamed this species as Calocera viscosa, which has remained its accepted scientific name up to the present time.

Synonyms of Calocera viscosa include Clavaria viscosa Pers., Calocera flammea Fr., Calocera cavarae Bres., and Calocera viscosa var. cavarae (Bres.) McNabb.

Etymology

Calo- as a prefix means beautiful, while the extension -cera comes from ancient Greek and means 'like wax', so that the genus name Calocera translates to 'beautiful and waxy' - and surely Calocera viscosa, which is the type species of its genus, deserves such an accolade. Just as it sounds, the specific epithet viscosa simply means viscous, sticky or greasy, and when it is wet the Yellow Stagshorn does indeed have a sticky surface.

Identification guide

	Description Bright orange or orange-yellow, up to 10cm tall, greasy and viscid, with antler-like branches often forked near the tips - hence the common name Jelly Antler Fungus is sometimes given to this species. In dry weather, the colour can become orange-red. Basidia Two-spored.
	Spores Ellipsoidal to sausage-shaped, 8-12 x 3.5-5µm; hyaline; inamyloid; sometimes becoming septate when fully mature (developing a single dividing wall); each spore containing two oil droplets. Show larger image Spores of Calocera viscosa, Yellow Stagshorn  X  Spore print White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat & Ecological role	On roots and stumps of conifers.
Season	Fruiting through most of the year, but particularly prevalent in autumn.
Similar species	Yellow Stagshorn fungus could be confused with some of the Ramaria species of coral fungi, but the greasy, viscid surface of Calocera viscosa is an immediately obvious distinguishing feature.

Culinary Notes

Although not known to cause poisoning, the Yellow Stagshorn fungus is generally regarded as inedible because of its gelatinous texture, lack of flavour and insubstantial proportions - although some sources do list it as edible but of very little culinary value except to add colour to other mushroom dishes.

Reference Sources

Fascinated by Fungi, 2nd Edition, Pat O'Reilly 2016, reprinted by Coch-y-bonddu Books in 2022.

McNabb R.F.R. 1965a. Taxonomic studies in the Dacrymycetaceae II. Calocera (Fries) Fries. New Zealand J. Bot. 3: 31–58.

Dictionary of the Fungi; Paul M. Kirk, Paul F. Cannon, David W. Minter and J. A. Stalpers; CABI, 2008

Taxonomic history and synonym information on these pages is drawn from many sources but in particular from the British Mycological Society's GB Checklist of Fungi.

Acknowledgements

This page includes pictures kindly contributed by Simon Harding.

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