Clavariadelphus ligula/Clavariadelphus pistillaris

[BubikolRamios]

Local guy says Clavariadelphus pistillaris, but has no description of color change for pistillaris, has mild to none description of color change for ligula, namely red.
Yelow specimen also changes color but much much less. I guess we could imagine red at bruises.

[Svampskogen]

Clavariadelphus helveticus?

[BubikolRamios]

Croatian page also says meat becomes dark on air for https://www.cromushrooms.eu/594-fungi/b ... istillaris

[abeja]

In my region I can only find C. pistillaris, taste slightly bitter, flesh yellow with KOH, not getting a dark red-brown colour inside. (Matching descriptions afaik).

[BubikolRamios]

I guess pistilaris, 10 m from OP find. Changed color much quicker, diff photo in time stamp.

[abeja]

I'm still very surprised by this extremely dark reddish-brown color. The descriptions sometimes contradict each other on this point. I've since found descriptions of C. pistillaris that mention a “pinkish-brown” discoloration in the flesh. However, the species mentioned by Svampskogen was described relatively late and distinguished from C. pistillaris. The German common name for C. helveticus is “Rötende Riesenkeule”, with the reddening being emphasized!
(In Fungi of Temperate Europe both are described as reddening and distinguished microscopically by differently shaped crystals on the hyphae.)
I’ve posted a link to this inquiry on the DGfM forum, since I’m also interested in this...

https://forum.dgfm-ev.de/thread/5750-fr ... #post42880

[BubikolRamios]

Just a note if you did not noticed, change of color just at rim, I guess centre of flesh is too dry or something. At bottom, at time of cut, white, can't change knife and camera quick enough to catch white.
Clavariadelphus helveticus not mentioned anywhere on local (Slovenia) google at all.

[abeja]

Can you tell us anything about its habitat?
What altitude, what trees, and is the soil more alkaline or more acidic?

I’ve only found this description of C. helveticus in German (Use DeepL to translate it).
https://www.mycobank.org/details/26/2167
This species is apparently more common in Scandinavia; but the first record was from Switzerland. The information for Central Europe mostly refers to alpine/subalpine habitats with spruce. But I have read about Bavaria, lower altitude as well.

If you find the smaller, whitish ones again, tips shaped like an elefant' s tooth - maybe you can ask someone for microscopic determination.