Smoky Spindles

Description

Smoky Spindles is a common club fungus. It occurs in Europe and North America, and there are scattered reports throughout the world on every continent except Antarctica. It occurs in the United States and southern Canada east of the Great Plains and on the West Coast.

Smoky Spindles is found in summer and fall, usually in open woodlands and woodland edges, sometimes in grassy areas. It grows on the ground in dense clusters, physically joined at the base and emerging from a single point of origin, or in tufts, a cluster that is so tightly packed it can appear as a single, dense mass. It gets its nutrients from decaying organic matter (saprobic).

The fruiting body is ¾″ to 5⅛″ (2 to 14 cm) tall and 1⁄16″ to ¼″ (2 to 7 mm) wide. It is usually cylindrical, sometimes flattened or twisted, usually unbranched, rarely branched near the tip, and usually smooth, sometimes longitudinally grooved. The color is variable, mostly grayish, whitish, yellowish, pinkish, or brownish, and it is pale or nearly white just at the base. It is never bright white or purplish. The tip at first is usually blunt, sometimes pointed, but it soon shrinks and turns brownish, eventually dark reddish brown to black with age.

The flesh is fairly brittle, making collecting difficult. It is edible but insubstantial and flavorless.

The spore print is white.

Similar Species

Fairy Fingers (Clavaria fragilis) spindles are bright white.

Purple Spindles (Alloclavaria purpurea) spindles are grayish purple to deep purple when young. They turn smoky brown when they age and can be mistaken for Smoky Spindles.

Habitat and Hosts

Woodlands and grassy areas

Ecology

Season

Summer and fall