Giant Club

Giant Club Clavariadelphus pistillaris (L.) Donk (illustrated 45% life size) Fruit body 7–30cm high, 2–6cm wide, simple, varying from cylindrical to conspicuously club-shaped; light yellow and deep ochraceous, bruising brownish-vinaceous. Flesh firm, becoming soft and spongy; taste bitter, smell sickly, mushroomy. Spores 11–16×6–10¼, oblong-ellipsoid; white or faintly yellowish. Habitat solitary or gregarious, on the ground in beech woods on chalk, especially in the south of England; autumn. Uncommon, thought to be declining. Edible but poor.