Fruit bodies up to 28 x 2 mm, simple clubs or branched once or twice, and then within a few mm of the apex, cream ("cartridge-buff", "ivory-yellow") all over, gregarious to cespitose in small clusters, arising from small patches of white mycelium, terete; axils (when present) acute; apices acerose; drycolours: stipe tan to pallid orange, hymenium tan to alutaceous.

Tramal hyphae of club up to 7 gm dram., hyaline, uninflated, clamped, tightly packed, parallel. Hymenium thickening; basidia 65-75 x 8 gm, subcylindrical, clamped; contents opalescent; sterigmata 2, cornute. Cystidia (Fig. 43) 70-100x8-9 gym, cylindrical, aseptate or rarely 1-septate (and then septum clamped), clamped, refringent and orange¬ochre in distal portion under phase contrast.

Spores (Fig. 44) 8.3-9.4 x 6.8-8.3 gm (E =1.05-1.30; E'^ =1.18; L'° = 8.88 gm), subglobose to broadly ovate, thin¬walled; contents opalescent; hilar appendix small, papillate.

Specimens of Clavulina alutaceo-siccescens are clearly marked by simple to almost simple stature, white to off-white colour when fresh, and tan to alutaceous colour when dry. Aseptate cystidia further separate it from C. samuelsii.

Corner et al. (1958) description of Clavulina mussooriensis Corner, Thind, & Dev seems close, but a specimen from India (TENN no. 37652, ex PAN) shows septate cystidia and branched fruit bodies. C. hispidulosa differs in precisely the same ways (see under that species).

Cystidia in Clavulina alutaceo-siccescens occur singly and in small clusters, and often are hardly emergent. As usual, the distal portion is refringent, and the refringent portion was set off by a clamped septum in one cystidium observed. Whereas in most taxa cystidia are clearly discernible under a dissecting microscope, the hymenium of C. alutaceo-siccescens appears smooth at that magnification