Sowerbyella rhenana

Known from the cool North Temperate zone in Europe, Asia, and North America. This species appears to be truly rare throughout its range; the fruiting bodies are eyecatching in their coloration and relatively easy to identify at least to genus so the observations on rarity should be taken seriously. Several years may elapse between fruitings, a factor that makes surveying for it problematical at best. As suitable habitats are lost to logging, development, and other forest-altering or forest-removing activities, the remaining populations will become increasingly isolated and vulnerable. Few sites are protected and many of the unprotected sites are in areas that may be logged. More of the known populations need to be protected in some manner.

It is to be expected across the cool North Temperate zone in Europe and Asia as well as North America. The species was described from Europe. Hansen et al. (2000) report it from Denmark (occasional), Norway (three collections), and Sweden (rare); Breitenbach and Kranzlin (1981) report it from Switzerland (as very rare); Dennis (1978) considered it "doubtful" in Britain, and Imazeki et al.(1988) report it from Japan. It is on the red lists of Sweden as a VU species (Samuelsson n.d.) and Norway as an E species (Bendiksen et al. N.d.). In North America, Seaver (1928) gave its distribution as "Pennsylvania to Alabama and west to Washington." BPI (Farr et al. N.d.) has collections identified as this species from North Carolina, New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York. The ISMS data set includes 39 collections from California, Oregon, and Washington while Weber (1995) reported nine localities some of which may be in ISMS as "Known Sites Data." It is reported from Idaho and It may also occur in Alaska.

It is to be expected across the cool North Temperate zone in Europe and Asia as well as North America. Castellano et al. (1999) reported it from 14 sites in the region of the northern spotted owl.There are 60 or more reports from about 25 locations in California (N. Siegel, pers. comm., 2019).

This species is found in moist coniferous forests with a variety of mature trees. The specimens are often found on, or associated with moss beds and decaying wood can often been found in the soil when one tries to excavate the bases. Land management practices that result in greatly reducing the amount of coarse woody debris, that change the canopy such that the understory is significantly drier, or that remove the trees completely could adversely impact this species. Logging and other ground-disturbing activities are the main activities that threaten it.