Pseudomerulius aureus

features include 1) resupinate growth on decayed, barkless, confer wood, especially pine, 2) radial or net-like spore-bearing surface (folded-wrinkled, often raduloid), soft, wax-like, yellow or almost orange, then yellow-brown, darkening when touched, margin narrow, and bright yellow to whitish, cap when present pallid or yellowish, tomentose, not zoned, 3) spores cylindric to suballantoid, smooth, with slight reddish brown tint in Melzer's reagent, yellow, cyanophilic, walls slightly thickened, 4) basidia formed from opposite to basal clamp connection, 5) hyphal system monomitic, clamp connections often large or handle-like, some hyphae with conidia-like outgrowths, some hyphae with bands at intervals, subicular hyphae with grainy encrustation,
FRUITING BODY resupinate or partly reflexed, adnate [firmly attached] but when dried easily detached, about 0.1cm thick, mostly orbicular [circular], 1-2cm wide, but often confluent and larger, spore-bearing surface ceraceous [waxy], (brittle when dried), at first yellow or almost orange, then yellow-brown, darkening when touched, (in herbarium "more lurid brown, sometimes with a tint of olivaceous"), "folded into an irregular net of angular, composed pores", 0.1-0.3cm wide, when young "sometimes radiate in a cantharelloid way"; margin narrow, soft, white or yellow, finely velvety under lens, (Eriksson), "annual, effused or effused-reflexed, frequently confluent, separable when fresh", generally 2cm x 1cm and average 0.1cm thick; 'cap' when present firm, up to 0.5cm wide and less than 0.5cm thick, "pallid or yellowish, finely tomentose to matted tomentose", not zoned; margin when fresh white at the extreme edge becoming sulfur-yellow to bright greenish yellow, tomentose, abrupt, mound-like, but when dry usually pallid, abruptly demarcated from the spore-bearing surface, raised, tomentose to cottony, and up to 0.2cm wide; spore-bearing surface when fresh yellow to brownish, (bright yellow at the margin), "when dry darker, fawn, ochraceous to brown, crust-like", the folds narrow, up to 0.2cm deep, "continuous, radiating, frequently raduloid, sometimes anastomosing to form irregular pits", one or two per millimeter; "context fragile, white when fresh, pallid in dried specimens, homogeneous", (Ginns(12)), resupinate with a tendency to have a recurved margin, attached loosely, forming patches up to 0.2cm thick and several centimeters across, wax-like, soft; spore-bearing surface more or less radially folded-wrinkled, "sometimes also forming rudimentary angular pores", orange-brown to golden brown, marginal zone tomentose, sulphur-yellow to ocher-yellow, (Breitenbach), spore deposit yellowish (Buczacki)

MICROSCOPIC SPORE 4-4.5(5) x 1.3-1.8 microns, cylindric, "straight or with slightly concave adaxial side, or suballantoid", smooth, inamyloid (in Melzer's reagent with a slight reddish brown tint), yellow, cyanophilic, with thickened walls, spore print brown; BASIDIA 4-spored, 15-20 x 4-5 microns (sometimes longer up to 40 microns with prolonged base), clavate, with basal clamp connection, new basidia "as a rule formed not from the basal clamp but opposite to it, forming a characteristic subbasidial hyphae [sic] with lateral hooks marking the sites of earlier basidia"; CYSTIDIA none; HYPHAE monomitic, "thin-walled or in the subiculum slightly thick-walled", with clamp connections and anastomoses; subhymenial hyphae 2-3 microns wide (swelling in KOH), richly branched, "some hyphae with peculiar bands or rings at irregular intervals, sometimes also with capitate projections looking like conidium formation but evidently something else", deviating clamp connections often seen - ampullate or with wide ansiform [handle-like] clamp connections; subicular hyphae normally 3-5 microns wide, not swelling, "provided with a sparse fine-grainy encrustation", with scattered clamp connections and branches, "forming a loose context without interhyphal substance", (Eriksson), SPORE 3.5-4.5(5) x 1.5-2(2.5) microns, short-oblong, in profile cylindric or tapering apically to reniform [kidney-shaped], some with 2 droplets, smooth, IKI-, colorless to pale yellowish, quickly distinctly blue in lactic-blue, slightly thickened, spore print distinctly yellowish or olive-yellow on paper and pallid on glass slides; BASIDIA 14-20 x 4-6 microns, "clavate, often with the basal 5 microns flared"; CYSTIDIA none; HYPHAE monomitic; "subhymenium about 30 microns thick with hyphae closely woven"; context hyphae 2-5 microns wide, "loosely woven to relatively closely packed, branching frequently" and often at a clamp connection, "with large clamp connections, thin-walled, anastomosing", "often incrusted with amorphous, yellowish, resin-like deposits", (Ginns(12)), SPORE 3.5-4.5 x 1.3-1.8 microns, cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, yellowish, cyanophilic; BASIDIA 4-spored, 18-24 x 3-4 microns, narrowly clavate, with basal clamp connection; CYSTIDIA none; HYPHAE monomitic, 1.5-3.5 microns wide, "branched with anastomoses and short outgrowths", some hyphae swelling in KOH, some septa with large medallion clamp connections, according to the literature sometimes with conidia-like offshoots and band-like hyphal thickenings, but these not seen, (Breitenbach)