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- ›Echinodontium
Echinodontium ryvardenii
Echinodontium ryvardenii is a rare species of fungus in the family Echinodontiaceae, described in 1998 and named in honour of the mycologist Leif Ryvarden. The fungus produces woody, perennial fruit bodies with distinctive ashen-grey, teeth-like structures on its spore-bearing surface, and grows parasitically on ancient Juniperus phoenicea trees in Sardinia, Italy. As the first European representative of a genus previously known only from North America and Asia, E. ryvardenii is considered an evolutionary relict with fewer than 600 mature individuals remaining, earning it an endangered status on the IUCN Red List.
From the article Echinodontium ryvardenii on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The basidiocarps (fruiting bodies) of Echinodontium ryvardenii are perennial, woody, and conchate (shell-shaped) to effused-reflexed or occasionally resupinate (flat against the substrate). They typically measure 2–6 cm long, 1–3 cm wide, and 0.4–0.8 cm thick, and may occur singly or in overlapping groups. The sterile upper surface, when present, is tomentose-rugose (hairy and wrinkled), zonate (with concentric zones), and brown to brownish-black with paler margins. The margin is 1–2 mm wide, pubescent-tomentose, rounded then acute, and undulating. The hymenophore (spore-bearing surface) is a distinctive ashen to silvery grey colour, which remains unchanged when dry. It is characterised by scattered teeth similar to stalactites, sometimes fused to form aggregate tubercules measuring 1–5 mm long and 0.5–1 mm wide, with rounded tips. These teeth remain fertile even when few basidia (spore-producing structures) are present. The context (inner tissue) is firm and zonate, 2–3 mm thick, ranging from pale brown to brown. …
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
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Every page naming Echinodontium ryvardenii in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 891931.