| Description : | CLAVARIA DEPOKENSIS van Overeem
Clavaria depokensis van Overeem in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenz. III, 5: 271. 1923. Clavulinopsis depokensis (van Overeem) Corner in Ann. Bot. Mem. 1: 364. 1950.
TYPE (holotype): BP - Java, Nat'l. Monument Depok, iv.22, -!- 93 m alt., leg. C. & D. van Overeem-de Haas, "rottende bladeren en takjes," Herb. Hort. Bot. Bogor, no. 748.
The specimen is fixed in liquid, and an empty packet bears the same collection data. The fixed specimen was illustrated by van Overeem (1923c), and, interestingly, there are no other specimens listed under this name in the accession book at BO.
The illustration shows macroscopic characters, of which the basal pad of mycelium must be emphasized. The following microscopic characters may also be furnished.
Tramal hyphae 3.5-12 µm diam, clamped at primary septa, parallel; secondary septa common, unconstricted, without clamp connections; gloeoplerous hyphae absent. Basidia clavate, clamped, refringent under phase contrast; contents golden yellow.
Spores 5.3-6.4 x 3.5-4.3 µm, ellipsoid to somewhat narrowly ovate, smooth, pale yellow under bright field; apiculus up to 2 µm long, very prominent, conical; contents often uniguttulate.
Another packet at BO bears the same accession number, but the contents include only some leaves with white mycelium. Apparently Corner (1970) examined only this packet, drawing the conclusion that the illustration by van Overeem must serve as an iconotype. The original aquarelle in reliquiae van Overeem at BO is numbered 129, the second number also on packet no. 748 with sterile white mycelium on leaves.
So in spite of the misnumbering, the illustrated specimen still exists (fixed in liquid), and must serve as the implicit holotype, with the original aquarelle and published illustration as excellent supporting material.
The specimen represents a Clavulinopsis, very closely related to C. laeticolor in the general shape of the spores and very prominent apiculus. Van Overeem astutely compared the two, but had no information on the spores of Berkeley's species. Clavulinopsis laeticolor, however, has slightly larger spores and bright golden orange coloration, not deep orange-red. Moreover, both show a basal pad of mycelium on the fruit body, and so consistently differ from others of the same complex (C. fusiformis, C. corniculata, etc.), the fruit bodies of which seem to arise below the surface of the substrate and then from a minute primordium with rounded base, not an appressed mycelial pad.
Van Overeem illustrated amorphous crystalline material, but I found copious needle-shaped or very slender awl-shaped crystals. Concommitantly, I found only very few measurable spores, so the spore dimensions above may be somewhat inaccurate.
Corner (1950), while correctly retaining the taxon as discrete in Clavulinopsis, indicated his equivocation of placement, and later (Corner 1970), concluded that no type existed.
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