Favolaschia calocera, commonly known as the orange pore fungus, is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae.Singer R (1986) The Agaricales in modern taxonomy, 4th edn. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein Due to its form it is also known as orange pore conch or orange Ping-Pong bat.Ainsworth AM, Farley D, Gainey P, Penna P, Suz LM, (2015) Invasion of the Orange Ping-Pong Bats: the rapidly changing distribution of Favolaschia calocera. Field Mycology, 16(4): 113-120. Throughout much of its expanded range F. calocera is now considered an invasive species. It colonizes ruderal sites along transport routes and can become dominant in habitats disturbed by human activity. Mycologists fear that it may be displacing native fungi species as it spreads through the paleotropics.
Etymology For the generic name, see Favolaschia. The specific epithet was chosen because the basidia and sterigmata of the species resemble those of the fungi of the genus Calocera.
Description Favolaschia calocera is a wood-inhabiting saprotrophic fungus.Singer R (1974) A Monograph of Favolaschia Beih. Nova Hedwigia 50:1–107 It often has a bright yellow color at first, and can later appear in a brownish yellow color, though it often presents as a bright orange stalked fan, 5 mm–30 mm diameter, with prominent pores on the underside.
Geographic distribution First observed in Madagascar,Heim R (1945) Les agarics tropicaux à hyménium tubulé (Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinée, Antilles, Insulinde). Rev Mycol 10:3–61 it is present in New Zealand since the 1950s,Johnston PR, Whitton SR, Buchanan PK, Park D, Pennycook SR, Johnson JE, Moncalvo JM (2006) The basidiomycete genus Favolaschia in New Zealand. N Z J Bot 44(1):65–87 where it became an invasive species.Johnston PR, Buchanan P (1998) Fungal invaders. Aust Mycol Newsl 17:48–52 It has recently spread around the world. In 1999 it was first found in Italy.Vizzini A, Zotti M (2002) Favolaschia calocera, a tropical species collected in Italy. Mycotaxon 82:169–176Vizzini A, Zotti M, Mello A (2009) Alien fungal species distribution: the study case of Favolaschia calocera. Biological Invasions 11(2):417-429. The second European country where it appeared was Spain. There it was first found in 2004 near the Monte Deva, Gijon, by D. Francisco Casero, president of the Asturian Society of Mycology.Casero Morcillo, F. (2008): Favolaschia calocera Heim. Primera cita en la Península Ibérica. Yesca 20:24-25. In 2012 it was found in Great Britain and in 2013 it was sighted on the mainland of Portugal.Cazenave, R. (2017) Deux récoltes françaises d’une espèce tropicale: Favolaschia calocera R. Heim. Bulletin mycologique du Dauphiné-Savoie n° 224: 19-29. It has also been found in the Azores.Souto, M., Raposeiro, P. M., Balibrea, A., & Gonçalves, V. (2024). Checklist of Basidiomycota and New Records from the Azores Archipelago. Diversity, 16(3), 170. https://doi.org/10.3390/d16030170 In 2015 it was found in France and Switzerland.Spinelli, C. (2016) Favolaschia calocera – Un fungo dei tropici in marcia verso nord, ora anche in Ticino. / Favolaschia calocera – Ein tropischer Pilz wandert Richtung Norden und ist im Tessin angekommen. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Pilzkunde, 94(3): 13-15. In 2019 it was found in Belgium and in November 2020 it was found in the Netherlands. In 2022 it was found in Ireland and in 2023 in Northern Ireland.Campbell, C., Kelleher, C. T., & Leahy, J. “Favolaschia Claudopus (Singer) Q.Y. Zhang & Y.C. Dai, a Basidiomycete Fungus New to Ireland from Co. Cork (H3).” The Irish Naturalists’ Journal 40 (2023): 108–11. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48773495. In September 2023 it was first recorded on the Isle of Man. And in 2015, it was also found in the Khosta Microdistrict (southwestern Russia).Volobuev, S.V. et al. (2021) New Species for Regional Mycobiotas of Russia. 6. Report 2021. Mycology and Phytopathology 55(6):411-422.
Its distribution in America is not well documented, but it was collected in Ecuador,Batallas-Molina R, Moya-Marcalla GF, Navas D. 2021. Listado de la colección de hongos (Ascomycota y Basidiomycota) del Herbario Nacional del Ecuador (QCNE) del Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INABIO). ACI 12(20):38-71. doi: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v12i1.1755 Paraguay,Campi, M. et al. (2022). Funga of the Ybycui National Park: preliminary list of species of macrofungi and new citations for Paraguay. Steviana 13(2), 75-96. Colombia,Chavarro, C. C. & Medina, D. G. (2025). Hongos en la finca la franja: explorando la diversidad fúngica en vianí, cundinamarca. Trabajo de grado de pregrado. Recuperado de: http://hdl.handle.net/11349/99021 Venezuela, Brazil and Peru.Gazis R (2007) Evaluation of the macrofungal community at los Amigos biological station, Madre de Dios, Peru (Master of Science Thesis). Department of Environmental Science, Texas Cristian University, USA.Palacios Noé, LK (2015) Hongos macroscópicos del Phylum Basidiomycota en el Bosque de neblina de Cuyas, Ayabaca-Piura. Tesis para optar el título profesional de biólogo. Universidad Nacional de Piura. It is also present in Costa Rica and is widespread on the islands of Hawaii, although it had not been found there before 2009. It has recently been found in California.Torres, E. (2026). Invasive Macrofungi in the United States: A Mushrooming Crisis. Student Theses 2015-Present. 221. https://research.library.fordham.edu/environ_2015/221 It is also widespread in AustraliaRobinson R (2013) First record of Favolaschia calocera in Western Australia. Australasian Mycologist 31:41-43 and was first collected on Norfolk Island in 1994, but in opposition to its early spreading in New Zealand it was not collected in mainland Australia until the year 2004. It was also found on the French Islands Réunion Island and Mayotte, which are located near the mainland of Africa. There it was found in Kenya, Cameroon,Teke, A.N. et al. (2019). Mushroom species richness, distribution and substrate specificity in the Kilum-Ijim forest reserve of Cameroon. Journal of Applied Biosciences, 133(1), 13592–13617. https://doi.org/10.4314/jab.v133i1.11[ DR Congo, Tanzania and Zambia. Its also present on São ToméSimões, A.S.B. (2021) Utu d’Obo - Mushroom Diversity from São Tomé's Island. Thesis for: MSc in Plant Biodiversity and Biotechnology. Coimbra University. and on the Seychelles. In Asia it was first found in Thailand and China with a high level of genetic variation between the collections. More recently, it was found in India,Chuzho K, & Dkhar MS, (2019). Ecological Determinants of Wood-Rotting Fungal Diversity and First Report of Favolaschia calocera, an Invasive Species from India. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences, 89(4), 1177-1188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-018-1038-1 Nepal,Aryal, H. P., & Thapa, L. B. (2023). Macrofungi along Elevation Gradient in Palpa District, Lumbini Province, Nepal. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Biodiversity and Bioprospecting, June 2023, Publicity and Documentation Section, Department of Plant Resources, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal. 135-151. Myanmar,Hosaka, K., Nam, K.-O., Linn, W., & Aung, M. (2021). Species identification based on DNA of selected mushrooms from Myanmar (1) Lactarius austrotorminosus and 17 other taxa newly reported from Myanmar. Bulletin of the National Science Museum, Series B, 47(2), 59–69. Vietnam,Nguyen P. T. et al. Preliminary study of macrofungi in the forest dynamics plot at Bidoup – Nui Ba national park, Lam Dong province. In: The sixth National Conference of Biological Resources and Ecology, Hanoi. (2015). 872–877. the PhilippinesKim DH, Ha NM, Manalo MMQ, Manuel B, Lee JK. Checklist of Mushrooms of Mt. Cleopatra Needle Forest Reserve in Palawan Island, Philippines. J. Korean Soc. For. Sci. 2021;110(2):289-294. https://doi.org/10.14578/jkfs.2021.110.2.289 and on the island of Sumatra.Sari PH, Nazip K, Dayat E (2016) Jenis-Jenis Basidiomycota di Kawasan Air Terjn Curug pandan Kabupaten Lahat Serta Sumbangannya Pada Pembelajaran Biologi di SMA. Jurnal Pembelajaran Biologi. 3(1): 66–74. It is uncertain whether F. calocera is native to Madagascar or was introduced to the island from Asia. A recent study concludes that Favolaschia calocera is a species complex and renames the samples from Madagascar as Favolaschia calocera sensu stricto; the complex also includes three new species from China (F. brevibasidiata, F. brevistipitata and F. longistipitata), the new species F. minutissima from China and Thailand, and a variety raised to species rank called Favolaschia claudopus, to which the samples from Oceania, Africa and Europe seem to belong.Zhang Q-Y, Dai Y-C. Taxonomy and Phylogeny of the Favolaschia calocera Complex (Mycenaceae) with Descriptions of Four New Species. Forests. 2021; 12(10):1397. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101397
References
External links Favolaschia claudopus at First Nature Pictures of Underside [404 March 10, 2019] Brief description Description and family members California Fungi—Favolaschia calocera