English: Cordyceps.
Genus: 400 different species.
Region: northern hemisphere, Europe.
Content: cordycepin; protein CMP18 that induces apoptosis in vitro via a mitochondrion-dependent pathway.
MycologyFungus; entomopathogenic fungus, meaning it parasitizes insects; fruiting bodies 1 to 8 cm high, club-shaped, orange to red, which grow out of dead underground pupae; masses of white mycelia form around the parasitised insect; however, these may not be of the same specie.
Club is covered with the stroma; surface roughly punctured; inner fungal tissue is whitish to pale orange.
Spores: smooth, hyaline, long-filiform, often septate.
Asci: long, cylindrical.