and exuding a red-brown juice when broken.
Gills: adnate, fairly distant, whitish to flesh-colour with a dark
red-brown edge and not noticeably becoming blotched with red-brown.
Flesh: with no distinctive smell, reddish-brown and very thin.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: medium sized, hyaline, ellipsoid to pip-shaped, smooth about
10 µm long (9-10 × 4-5 µm) and becoming bluish grey when mounted in
solutions containing iodine.
Marginal cystidia: awl-shaped, pointed at the apex, swollen below and
filled with dark red-brown contents.
Facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Solitary or in small groups on poorly kept
lawns, in woods and copses; it is particularly frequent in the beds of
needles found in pine woods.
_General Information_: This fungus is easily recognised by the slender
habit, reddish juice exuded when broken and habitat preferences.
_Mycena haematopus_ (Fries) Kummer is larger and grows in tufts on
wood, but also has a red-brown juice which, however, spots the gills.
Another very common species of Mycena is _M. galopus_ (Fries) Kummer
which has a greyish or brownish cap and exudes a milk-like juice. The
related _M. leucogala_ (Cooke) Saccardo is almost black (see p. 216).
These agarics exuding juice when broken have a flesh composed of
filaments, a very different flesh-structure to species of _Lactarius_
(see p. 50) and although their spores are amyloid they do not turn
blue-black in iodine because of the presence of amyloid crests and
warts. There are few additional species of agaric which exude a
milk-like liquid, but the majority of these are tropical or
subtropical. The second names or epithets for the four species
mentioned above all refer to the ‘latex’--sanguinolenta--bleeding,
_haematopus_ blood-foot; _galopus_, milk-foot and _leucogala_, white
milk. For notes on Mycena one is referred to p. 68 describing _M.
galericulata_ (Fries) S. F. Gray.
_Illustrations_: WD 28⁴.
[Illustration: Plate 23. Fleshy, milking fungi: Spores white and borne
on gills]
~Collybia maculata~ (Fries) Kummer
Spotted tough-shank
_Cap_: width 80-130 mm. _Stem_: width 5-20 mm; length 50-158 mm.
_Description_:
Cap: white but soon becoming spotted with reddish-brown, finally
cream-colour with red-brown blotches, convex then becoming flattened,
fleshy, firm and tough.
Stem: white becoming streaked red-brown, thickest in the middle,
longitudinally furrowed or striate and often narrowed downwards into a
long irregular root embedded in the deep litter.
Gills: very crowded, cream-coloured, becoming spotted red-brown with
age.
Flesh: with pleasant smell, white and fibrous in the stem.
Spore-print: pinkish cream-colour.
Spores: small, almost spherical, hyaline under the microscope, about 5
µm in diameter (4-5 × 5 µm) and not blueing when placed in solutions
containing iodine.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Common in troops in woods, particularly
beech but also found in pine woods and on heaths.
_General Information_: Easily recognised by the crowded, narrow, cream
coloured gills and the cap being entirely white when young, but which
rapidly becomes spotted red-brown as it develops. ‘Maculatus’ means
spotted and refers to the red-brown blotches which develop irregularly
on the cap, stem and gills as the fruit-body matures.
The genus _Collybia_ is characterised by the fruit-body being tough,
the cap-margin incurved at first and the spore-print white or whitish.
The common fungus _C. maculata_ has always been assumed to have a
white spore-print but if a cap is placed on a piece of white paper
gills-down and left for twelve hours there is a surprise in store for
the careful observer.
_Illustrations_: F 15a; Hvass 77; LH 101; NB 103⁴; WD 21².
[Illustration: Plate 24. Fleshy fungi with tough stem: Spores white to
cream and borne on gills]
The specialised substrates of certain species of _Marasmius_ and related
genera
A whole series of very small fungi are found in woodland communities
which appear to be closely related one to another because their caps are
usually tough, although membranous, dry rapidly yet do not decay, and,
moreover, revive on remoistening. Their gills are also rather tough and
their spores always white in mass. They are placed in the genus
_Marasmius_. _Collybia_ or _Marasmius peronatus_ (Fries) Fries the ‘wood
woolly foot’ is one of our larger more familiar agarics related to this
group, but whereas it grows on all kinds of leafy detritus, even wood,
these small fungi appear to be very specific to the substrate on which
they grow.
~M. androsaceus~ (Fries) Fries grows both on heather and on pine-needles
(see p. 231).
Cap: whitish or pinkish buff.
Stem: black and hair-like.
Spores: pip-shaped and 7-9 × 3-4 µm.
~M. buxi~ Fries grows on box leaves.
~M. epiphylloides~ (Rea) Saccardo & Trotter grows on ivy leaves.
~M. graminum~ (Libert) Berkeley grows on grass stems.
Cap: red-brown.
Stem: dark brown.
Spores: pip-shaped, 8-12 × 4-6 µm.
~M. hudsonii~ (Fries) Fries grows on holly leaves.
~M. perforans~ (Fries) Fries grows on pine needles (now placed in the
genus _Micromphale_).
~M. undatus~ (Berkeley) Fries grows on bracken stems.
Cap: reddish brown or greyish and wrinkled.
Spores: egg-shaped, 8-9 × 6-7 µm.
Except for their rather special requirements as to substrate preference,
these species have in common small size, rather tough horny stems and
cap composed of erect ornamented cells.
Several agarics which grow on cones have also been placed in
_Marasmius_. They are frequent in spring and early summer the
fruit-bodies being attached by a very long rooting stem and cord of
fluffy hyphae to buried cones in conifers. The biology of these fungi is
still unknown, but the cones to which they are attached are always
closed yet buried often several inches beneath the surface of the
soil. It is yet to be found whether the spores of the agaric infect
the cones after they drop or whether the cones fall because they have
become infected. How do the cones become so deeply buried? Are squirrels
or rodents involved? All the species which grow on cones have brown or
tawny caps and yellowish brown stems.
[Illustration: Plate 25. Fleshy fungi with wiry to tough stem: Spores
white and borne on gills, fruit-body frequently reviving when moistened]
~Strobilurus stephanocystis~ (Hora) Singer has cystidia with rounded
heads and grows on pine-cones.
~S. tenacellus~ (Fries) Singer has pointed cystidia and grows on
pine-cones.
~S. esculentus~ (Fries) Singer has lance-shaped cystidia and grows on
spruce cones.
~Baeospora myosura~ (Fries) Singer is tough and pale-coloured and is
similar in general characters to species of _Strobilurus_, but has
amyloid spores and fruits on pine-cones in the autumn.
When discussing the specialised plant-substrates, such as cones, one
must mention the small brown-spored, pale buff coloured agaric _Tubaria
dispersa_ (Persoon) Singer, or _Tubaria autochthona_ (Berkeley & Broome)
Saccardo, which grows on the ground under hawthorns, often in troops in
summer and autumn, attached to old hardened hawthorn berries.
(ii) Agarics of Pastures and Meadows
(a) Agarics of rough and hill pastures
~Hygrocybe pratensis~ (Fries) Donk
Butter mushroom
_Cap_: width 20-80 mm. _Stem_: width 5-12 mm; length 30-70 mm.
_Description_:
Cap: convex then expanding to become plano-convex with a broad low
umbo, tan, pale russet or even yellowish buff throughout or slightly
darker at the centre.
Stem: gradually thickened upwards, similarly coloured to the cap or
paler if the cap is dark russet.
Gills: pale buff, deeply decurrent and often connected up at their
bases by veins.
Flesh: buff or pale tan, thick and soft in the cap, slightly fibrous
in the stem.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: medium-sized, ellipsoid to egg-shaped, hyaline under the
microscope, 7-8 × 5 µm in size and not becoming bluish grey in
solutions containing iodine.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Common in pastures or on heaths from early
summer to late autumn.
_General Information_: A fungus easily recognised by the uniform
buff-colour of the stem, cap and gills. As one might expect from the
common name it is edible; it is held in high regard by many
mushroom-pickers.
Although ‘pratensis’ specifically means fields, reflecting the habitat
of the fungus, this and related species can also be found on heaths
and pastures often intermixed and forming a most interesting flora.
The following are perhaps the most commonly seen:
_H. lacma_ (Fries) Orton & Watling and _H. cinerea_ (Fries) Orton &
Watling are similar in stature, but metallic grey in colour except for
the persistently yellow stem-base in _H. lacma_.
_H. subradiata_ (Secretan) Orton & Watling is flesh-coloured or
brownish and _H. virginea_ (Fries) Orton & Watling is white.
_H. nivea_ (Fries) Orton & Watling and _H. russocoriacea_ (Berkeley &
Miller) Orton & Watling are much smaller, the former white and
odourless and the latter off-white with a very strong smell of
incense.
_Illustrations_: F 12^{b}; Hvass 95; LH 77; NB 33²; WD 33³.
[Illustration: Plate 26. Fleshy fungi: Spores white and borne on thick,
waxy gills]
~Hygrocybe psittacina~ (Fries) Wunsche
Parrot hygrophorus
_Cap_: width 12-25 mm. _Stem_: width 3-8 mm; length 30-60 mm.
_Description_:
Cap: very slimy with colourless sticky fluid, deep bluish green when
fresh, but becoming more and more ochraceous-orange with age or
completely fading out to a yellow ochre, bell-shaped at first then
expanded except for central umbo.
Stem: like the cap very slimy, apple-green or bluish green throughout
but becoming ochraceous like the cap except at the apex which is
persistently green.
Gills: adnate yellow or apricot-coloured, greenish towards their base,
broad, distant and rather tough.
Flesh: whitish, tinged green in the cap and yellow or apricot-colour
in the stem.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: medium-sized, hyaline, ellipsoid, not blue-grey in solutions
containing iodine and 8-9 × 4-5 µm in size.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Common in grassland and hill-pastures, but
it also occurs in copses and woodlands.
_General Information_: This fungus is easily recognised by the
distinctive colours, but it is rather deceptive for the cap and the
stem soon become faded; however, the green colouration persists at the
apex of the stem and it is by this that in the faded state the fungus
can still be identified. _H. laeta_ (Fries) Kummer fades to similar
colours but the cap is flesh-colour at first or sordid brown and the
gills are flesh-coloured or greyish; it prefers upland pastures and
heathland: its spores are smaller, being 5-7 × 4 µm.
_Illustrations_: F 12a; Hvass 92; LH 79; NB 33⁶; WD 34⁵.
General notes on Hygrophori
_Hygrophori_ are some of our most colourful groups of agarics, many are
brightly coloured with caps in reds, greens, yellows, oranges, etc., the
colour often accentuated by the usually slimy aspect. Traditionally the
genus _Hygrophorus_ has been split into three groups as follows:--
_Limacium_ with slimy cap, adnate to decurrent gills and slimy or
tacky stem which may also often be ornamented with dots, especially
towards the top.
_Camarophyllus_ with dry cap, smooth and fibrous stem and decurrent
gills.
_Hygrocybe_ with thin, fragile, sticky or moist cap, smooth fibrillose
stem and gills varying from free to decurrent.
The last two sections have been joined together into the single genus
_Hygrocybe_ and all the members seem to be saprophytic or intimately
associated with grassland communities. The first section _Limacium_ now
makes up the genus _Hygrophorus_ and its members are thought to be
mycorrhizal with trees, e.g. _H. hypothejus_ (Fries) Fries with pine,
the ‘Herald of the winter’ because it occurs at the end of the fungus
season and _H. chrysaspis_ Métrod, a whitish, sickly-smelling fungus
under beech. Results from examining the anatomy of the gills appears to
confirm these divisions. All the Hygrophori have a homogeneous flesh,
white spores, central, fleshy stem and thick, waxy gills;
microscopically this group of fungi can be recognised by the very long
basidia.
The following are common examples of the genus Hygrocybe:--
~H. calyptraeformis~ (Berkeley & Broome) Fayod has a rose-pink,
conical cap which expands to become upturned at the edge with age.
~H. coccinea~ (Fries) Kummer has a bright scarlet cap which becomes
yellow-ochre on drying and a yellow base to a scarlet stem.
~H. conica~ (Fries) Kummer has an orange to red stem and sharply
conical cap which turns blackish with age and whose gills when cut
exude a clear watery liquid.
~H. flavescens~ (Kauffman) Singer has a slimy, golden yellow cap and
similarly coloured stem.
~H. chlorophana~ is similar, but has a lemon-yellow cap and stem.
~H. punicea~ (Fries) Kummer is a large and robust species, similar in
colour to _H. coccinea_ but with a white base to the stem.
~H. unguinosa~ (Fries) Karsten has a smoky grey, very slimy cap and
stem.
~H. nitrata~ (Persoon) Wunsche is as dull coloured as _H. unguinosa_,
but is not slimy, and in addition strongly smells of cleaning fluid or
bleaching-powder. It is one of three dull coloured, strong
bleaching-powder-smelling species found in Britain. _H. ovina_ is
another, but is darker than _H. nitrata_ and becomes red when bruised
or cut.
[Illustration: Plate 27. Fleshy brightly coloured fungi: Spores white
and borne on thick, waxy gills]
~H. metapodia~ (Fries) Moser has a sooty brown fibrillose-streaky cap
and stem. The gills are distant and grey, and the fruit-body may reach
up to 100 mm across. It is probably the biggest of our native species
of _Hygrocybe_.
For completion examples of _Hygrophorus_ include:
~H. bresadolae~ Quélet has a slimy orange-yellow cap, yellow gills and
yellow, slimy, smooth stem. It is found under larch trees.
~H. chrysaspis~ Métrod has ivory white cap, stem and gills which soon
become flushed with rust-brown and finally the whole fruit-body
becomes red-brown. The stem is slimy and white dotted at the apex. It
grows in beech woods.
~H. hedrychii~ Velenovsky has a slimy cream-coloured cap flushed with
pale peach colour. The gills and stem are cream and the latter slimy
and dotted at the top. It is found in pine woods.
~H. hypothejus~ (Fries) Fries has an olive-brown slimy cap, yellow
stem and gills; the stem is slimy and smooth. It is found in pine
woods and under pines on heaths.
~H. pustulatus~ (Persoon) Fries has an ash-grey cap brownish towards
its centre, viscid white stem with dark grey dots at the apex and
white gills. _H. agathosmus_ (Secretan) Fries is similar, but smells
strongly of bitter almonds. Both species are found in plantations.
Species of the genus _Hygrophorus_ are infrequently encountered in
Britain, although twenty species are recorded for the British Isles.
They are ecologically distinct from members of the genus _Hygrocybe_
in preferring woodland communities to grassland areas; they are
probably mycorrhizal. The anatomy of the fruit-body is also rather
different to that found in _Hygrocybe_; the gill-trama is bilateral as
in _Leccinum_ (p. 27), _Suillus_ (p. 28), _Boletus_ (p. 31),
_Chroogomphus_ (p. 36), _Paxillus_ (p. 38) and _Amanita_ (p. 54).
Members of the genus _Hygrocybe_ have regular to irregular
gill-tramas. In fact, although both genera are united into a single
family, the Hygrophoraceae is based on one character common to both,
i.e. the long basidium; there is every indication that the genus
_Hygrocybe_ has greater affinity to _Omphalina_ in the
Tricholomataceae (p. 232).
Surprisingly enough in North America many of our familiar grassland
species including _H. pratensis_ are to be found in deep shaded
woodland!
Angular, pink-spored agarics--Rhodophyllaceae
The name of the family refers to the pink gills and it unites all those
fungi with a salmon-pinkish buff spore-print and whose spores are
angular in all optical sections. There are a few agarics, e.g.
_Clitopilus prunulus_ (Fries) Kummer with ridged spores which appear
angular in end-on view, but which are ellipsoid in both side and face
views and so are considered less related.
The family _Rhodophyllaceae_ by some authorities contains one genus
_Rhodophyllus_, more correctly called _Entoloma_; in the British Isles
five constituent genera are recognised, but they will have to be more
critically defined to make a more meaningful classification. At the
moment, many of the species are poorly documented and it would appear
that anatomical studies will assist in the future in the recognition of
species-groups.
If one selects the eight most distinctive shaped spore-types exhibited
in members of this family, then when their spores are examined side-on a
feature is available for correlation with the traditional field
characters, such as cap scaliness and gill-attachment. The most
distinctive spore-shape is Type G, found in _Nolanea staurospora_
Bresadola, which is probably the most common and widespread species of
the family. It grows in woodlands, grassland and on lawns and will be
dealt with later (p. 122). The other spore types are illustrated and
range from irregularly rhomboid to elongate angular.
The majority of the members of this group grow in grassland,
hill-pastures and meadows and distinct communities containing members of
this family and of the _Hygrophoraceae_ can be recognised. It is not
proposed to deal in detail with any individual members because they can
be so easily confused with each other by the specialist let alone by the
amateur.
However, the genera as at present accepted are as follows:--
1. ~Entoloma~ in its original sense contains agarics with fleshy caps,
fibrous stems and sinuate or adnexed gills, e.g. _Ent. clypeatum_
(Fries) Kummer with grey to yellow-brown cap, found growing with
members of the apple and rose-family in the summer and early autumn.
This genus corresponds to _Calocybe_ in the white-spored agarics (p.
110).
2. ~Leptonia~ contains those agarics with rather thin caps whose
margin is incurved, cartilaginous stems and adnate to adnexed, rarely
decurrent, gills and whose cap flesh is indistinct from that of the
stem, e.g. _Lept. serrulata_ (Fries) Kummer with dark blue to
violet-blue cap and dark blue edge to the gills. This genus approaches
the tough-shanks (_Collybia_) in the white-spored genera (p. 90).
3. ~Nolanea~ is characterised by agarics with delicate caps, whose
flesh is distinct from that of the stem and whose edge is straight and
pressed against the fragile stem when young, and the adnexed or
adnate, rarely decurrent, gills, e.g. _N. staurospora_ (see p. 122).
_N. cetrata_ (Fries) Kummer with yellow-brown to tan-coloured cap is
found from spring to autumn in conifer woodland, especially
plantations. The genus corresponds to _Mycena_ in the white-spored
agaric genera (p. 68).
4. ~Eccilia~ is a small genus containing agarics with thin, membranous
caps and distinctly decurrent gills, e.g. _E. sericeonitida_ P. D.
Orton with convex, then umbilicate, silky greyish brown cap. This
genus corresponds to _Omphalina_ in the white-spored agarics (p. 232).
5. ~Claudopus~ has three British representatives, all of which have a
very small stem which may even be absent, e.g. _C. depluens_ (Fries)
Gillet grows on soil and _C. parasiticus_ (Quélet) Ricken grows on old
decaying fruit-bodies of woody fungi. This genus corresponds to
_Pleurotellus_ in the white-spored genera and to _Crepidotus_ in the
brown-spored genera (p. 77).
[Illustration: Plate 28. Fleshy fungi: Spores pinkish and angular and
borne on gills - Rhodophyllaceae]
~Cystoderma amianthinum~ (Fries) Fayod
_Cap_: width 15-35 mm. _Stem_: width 4-8 mm; length 15-30 mm.
_Description_:
Cap: pale ochraceous yellow to sand-colour, convex then expanded, with
central umbo and often radially wrinkled-reticulate, covered
completely in powdery granules when fresh but these gradually
disappear with age or on excessive handling.
Stem: slender, white above a narrow, easily lost ring which is
composed of floccose, ochraceous yellow granules which also clothe the
lower part of the stem.
Gills: adnate, cream-coloured and crowded.
Flesh: yellowish with a strong smell of new-mown hay.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: small to medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, smooth,
ellipsoid, 5-7 × 3-4 µm and becoming blue-grey when mounted in
solutions containing iodine.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Frequently found amongst grass on heaths,
in hill-pastures and in woodlands from summer to autumn.
_General Information_: This fungus is recognised by the
gill-attachment and the powdery-scurfy cap formed by the breaking up
of an enveloping veil composed of thick-walled, rounded cells, similar
to those on the surface of the stem.
This fungus was formerly placed in the genus _Lepiota_ because of the
ring but the veil in _Cystoderma amianthinum_ is formed in quite a
different way to the ring in the true parasol mushrooms. The gills are
also adnate and not free as in the true species of _Lepiota_ (see p.
112). _C. carcharias_ (Secretan) Fayod is found under similar
conditions, but is white or flesh-coloured. _C. cinnabarinum_
(Secretan) Fayod is also found in short grass and moss, but has a
cinnabar-red, floccose cap and _C. granulosum_ (Fries) Fayod is
yellowish brown with non-amyloid spores and adnexed gills.
Many authorities prefer to connect this small group of closely related
species more to members of the _Tricholomataceae_ (i.e. the family
which contains the Wood Blewits (p. 131), _Mycena_ (p. 68, etc.) than
to the parasol mushrooms--_Lepiota_ (p. 112).
_Illustrations_: Hvass 23; LH 129; NB 103⁷; WD 8⁴.
[Illustration: Plate 29. Fleshy fungi: Spores white and borne on gills]
~Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca~ (Fries) Maire
False chanterelle
_Cap_: width 25-70 mm. _Stem_: width 4-7 mm; length 25-50 mm.
_Description_:
Cap: bright orange-yellow or apricot, fleshy, soft, depressed at
centre and with wavy, incurved, slightly downy margin.
Stem: yellow at apex, rich red-brown or orange about the middle and
sometimes dark brown at the very base.
Gills: decurrent, deep orange, thin, crowded, repeatedly forked and
easily separable from the cap-tissue.
Flesh: yellowish, pale in the cap, darker in the stem.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, ellipsoid or
pip-shaped, smooth, 7-8 × 4 µm and red-brown when mounted in solutions
of iodine.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Common in woodlands, particularly with
pines, and on heaths or in rough hill-pastures.
_General Information_: This fungus is recognisable by the orange or
yellow cap and stem and the decurrent gills. It was formerly placed in
_Cantharellus_ because of the colours, white spores and the decurrent
gills, but it really differs in many other respects. It is true,
however, that it is frequently confused with the true Chanterelle
(_Cantharellus cibarius_ Fries, p. 162) by those who do not inspect
their specimens carefully. The gills are thin, plate-like as in other
agarics and not fold-like as in _Cantharellus_ (see p. 162). The
Chanterelle is edible and sought after as a delicacy, but there are
varying reports as to the edibility of _Hygrophoropsis_. Certainly it
is not of the best quality and there is evidence for it causing
upsets: therefore it is best to take the name ‘False Chanterelle’ at
face value and treat this fungus as truely false; ‘aurantiaca’ means
orange-coloured and refers to the colour of the fungus.
A pale form is frequently collected, particularly in hill-pastures,
and is probably worthy of specific recognition. The cap is ochraceous
yellow to cream and the stem distinctly dark in the lower half.