Observations by joewan

Found at Landau Economics facing Serra Mall. Growing scattered along a wood chip-covered area under a mixed planting of pines (lacebark pine, P. bungeana, closest but also P. muricata and P. canariensis), London plane (Platanus), and oaks. Flesh white, not changing color after cut; pore surface yellow. Specimens have dried due to age, but leaves firmly stuck to caps indicate glutinous surface when wet. Stipe has prominent dark glandular dots.

The three-needle pine shown in the pictures is Pinus bungeana (lacebark pine).

I keyed this to S. fuscotomentosus in Desjardin, Wood, and Stevens 2015 (but these specimens were old, so color of young pore surface was unclear). It matches Arora 1979's S. acerbus with non-scaly and more viscid cap (but differs in host, which is given as Monterey pine); the two species appear to intergrade according to Arora.

Spore mass powdery and gray-brown (somewhat purplish). Surrounded by a tough peridium, developing cracks at maturity. Prominent rhizomorphs extend from base. Growing in a landscaped area among dead Equisetum rhizomes; across the street from several coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia).

Spores are spiny (see attached photo).

Reference: Desjardin 2015

Single fruiting body of a cup fungus observed under oak. Interior of cup smooth and light brown; exterior finely bumpy and lighter in color. Fruiting body lacks stem and is growing from mycelium embedded in the soil, visible in the photo. Photographs depict the fruiting body in habitat, and two sides of the fruiting body with a ruler for scale.

Found in leaf litter under young coast live oak. The orange (ochraceous) spore print and lack of crown-like branch tips suggest Ramaria, according to the key in Mushrooms Demystified. Keying to species was difficult.