Hericium flagellum

[Proposed to be the accepted name of alpestre based on the rules of priority. Most of the following were as alpestre.]

Abies alba

Abies spp.

Fagus orientalis  ?

Picea abies ?

“on various conifers”

Abies alba (silver fir) Ginns 1984 (Austria); Schmid-Heckel 1988 (Germany). Ginns 1984 comments that H. alpestre is restricted to central and southern Europe and occurs almost entirely on Abies alba (citing Hallenberg 1983); Also in Ginns 1985 (Austria); “growing in the mountains of Central and South Europe […] grows almost solely on Abies, in Europe mostly A. alba (Nuss [Nuß] 1973). It has not been found in the Nordic countries.” Koski-Kotiranta & Niemelä 1988.

Abies sp. (fir) ATCC; Stalpers 1992 (near Ostrava & also Bohemia, Czechoslovakia); also Varstvo gozdov(Slovakia); “[…] almost exclusively been found on newly fallen trunks and on stumps of Abies in the mountains of C and S Europe” Hallenberg 1983. (Austria); Dead tree. Merino Alcántara 2011 (Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France); Abies spp. (firs) Rastetter 1983 (in Vosges in France) (as H. coralloides); Also mentioned in Bisko et alia 2016 (Ukraine) who presented alpestre as a form of abietis; Abies was also given in Persoon 1794:151.

Fagus orientalis (oriental beech) Cybertruffle’s Robigalia (unclear if Georgia or Ukraine). [as = H. alpestre forma caput-ursi]

On “conifers and especially on Abies”. Tanchaud 2015 (France) (as H. flagellum).

“des vieux pins & des sapins” (“old pines and fir”) Paulet 1793:427. 

“on various conifers” Rastetter 1983 (at Hohneck and in central and south Vosges in France) (as H. coralloides).

“fairly rotten large trunk of conifer tree, laying on ground, debarked, Picea abies or Abies alba.” EOL (Slovenia).

There have been, and continue to be, various points of confusion involving the divergent views of alpestre, clathroides [see comments], coralloides  [see list of softwood host reports] and flagellum.

wrt European collections:

Hallenberg 1983 reported Hericium alpestre to react with p-cresol.

Hallenberg 1983 also reported that Hericium coralloides had no reaction with p-cresol.

There are have been additional points of confused applications.

Carya sp. (hickory) “grows from dead wood” “on a dead hickory” Coker 1918 (North Carolina, USA) (as Manina flagellum)