Facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Common on the ground near newly built
houses, on roadsides, tips and paths in woods, either solitary or in
groups; it is also found in pastures.
_General Information_: The fibrillose scaly cap and stem and the
almost black gills which frequently have liquid droplets at their edge
separate this species from all other agarics and microscopically it
can be easily recognised by the warted spores. ‘Velutina’ means
velvety and refers to the texture of the cap-surface, of the young
fruit-body. The genus name _Lacrymaria_ refers to this peculiar, but
certainly not unique, phenomenon, of exuding liquid from cells on the
gill-edge. This has been compared with weeping and ‘lacrymans’ means
weeping; the common name reflects this also--weeping widow (cf. p.
154).
This fungus has had a chequered history, for it is also known in some
books as _Hypholoma lacrymabunda_ (again meaning weeping) or _H.
velutina_; the anatomy of the fungus, however, is quite different to
_Hypholoma_ (e.g. _H. fasciculare_ p. 64). More recently it has found
a place in _Psathyrella_, but it seems unsatisfactorily placed there
because of the warty spores, black spore-print and fibrillose
cap-surface; it warrants a separate genus, i.e., _Lacrymaria_. _L.
pyrotricha_ (Fries) Konrad & Maublanc is the only other British
species of this genus but it has a bright orange cap colour; it is
rare.
_Illustrations_: Hvass 180; LH 141; WD 86³.
~Lepista nuda~ (Fries) Cooke
Wood blewits
_Cap_: width 70-100 mm. _Stem_: width 10-15 mm; length 70-100 mm.
_Description_: Plate 42.
Cap: rounded then flattened or slightly depressed in the centre,
smooth, bluish lilac, or violaceous when young but gradually with age
becoming reddish-brown, with or without a flush of wine colour.
Stem: similarly coloured to the cap, equal, fleshy, elastic,
fibrillose and streaky.
Gills: adnate with or without a decurrent tooth, crowded, lilac and
easily separable from the cap-tissue by the fingers.
Flesh: bluish violaceous, but drying out dirty buff in the base of the
stem.
Spore-print: flesh-coloured.
Spores: medium-sized, ellipsoid appearing smooth but very minutely
roughened under the microscope, although it is very difficult to see
except with a good instrument (6-8 × 4-5 µm in size).
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Widespread in troops or small groups in
copses and under hedgerows and not uncommon in flower-beds in gardens
in late autumn and early winter especially on compost heaps and in
rhubarb patches which have been mulched with piles of moribund leaves.
_General Information_: This fungus was originally placed in
_Tricholoma_, but due to differences in anatomy and the distinctly
coloured and ornamented spores it has been placed along with ‘common
blewits’ _T. personatum_ (Fries) Kummer (or better _L. saeva_ (Fries)
P. D. Orton), in the genus _Lepista_. This genus which is also called
_Rhodopaxillus_, again referring to the pinkish spore-print, is not
found in many of the easily obtainable books. One should look for the
fungus under _Tricholoma_, from which it can be separated easily by
the beautiful colour.
Both the ‘wood blewits’ and ‘common blewits’ have been regularly sold
in markets in England within the last fifty years. They are edible and
considered of high quality. In their fresh state they are easily
recognised, but as they age they become browned and so resemble many
other less desirable fungi.
_Illustrations_: F 17^{d}; Hvass 49; LH 91; NB 125²; WD 12³ (a bit too
pastel).
[Illustration: Plate 42. Fleshy fungi: Spores pale pinkish and borne on
gills]
~Agaricus bisporus~ (J. Lange) Pilát
Common mushroom
_Cap_: width 40-100 mm. _Stem_: width 15-25 mm; length 50-75 mm.
_Description_: Plate 43.
Cap: rounded gradually expanding to become plane, whitish with
numerous brown radiating fibrils and with the margin irregular because
of fragments from the ring which are left there after expansion of the
cap.
Stem: short, cylindrical, smooth, bruising reddish-brown when handled
and with a narrow ring which soon collapses and disappears.
Gills: free, pink at first then purple-brown, narrow and crowded.
Flesh: solid, thick, firm and slowly flushing brownish on cutting.
Spore-print: purple-brown.
Spores: medium-sized, broadly ellipsoid, purple-brown under the
microscope, less than 10 µm long, (6-8 × 5-6 µm).
Marginal cystidia: club-shaped, 10-12 µm at apex.
Facial cystidia: absent.
Basidia: 2-spored.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Frequent on manure heaps, straw heaps, on
road scrapings and around garden plants.
_General Information_: This fungus is recognised by the dark fibrils
on the cap, the 2-spored basidia easily seen with the low power of a
microscope, and the pink gills when young. Much confusion has existed
over this fungus and its nearest relatives. It is similar to the
‘Cultivated mushroom’, _A. hortensis_ (Cooke) Pilát, which is offered
for sale in shops. However, it differs in several minor details and it
may be that _A. bisporus_ is the fungus from which the cultivated
mushroom developed, very probably unconsciously by man, but the
history of the cultivated mushroom is very obscure. The cultivated
mushroom when bought in British shops is white but in the United
States two varieties are sold, one with the brownish fibrils
predominating and a snow-white one where the fibrils do not darken;
the former is frequently found in Europe. The white form is sometimes
found in gardens where spent-mushroom spawn is used as mulching around
fruit-trees but it has a rounder cap than _A. bisporus_. The
cultivated mushroom accounts for an annual income of £14 million in
the British Isles.
_Illustrations_: _A. hortensis_--LH 133 (as the forma _albida_); NB
31⁷; WD 71¹. _A. bisporus_--Hvass 161; LH 133.
[Illustration: Plate 43. Fleshy fungi: Spores purple-brown and borne on
gills]
B. BRACKET-FUNGI AND THEIR RELATIVES
_Key to major genera_
A group of fungi which includes the bracket fungi, hedgehog fungi,
fairy-clubs and their relatives; in the majority of species the margin
continues to grow through the favourable part of the season and so often
envelopes leaves, grass, etc.
1. Spore-bearing layer (hymenium) quite smooth, spread over veins or
shallow pores; fruit-body top-shaped, fan-shaped or club-shaped,
or spread over the substrate (resupinate) 2
Spore-bearing layer lining the inner surface of tubes or borne on
warts or spines 17
2. Fruit-body club-shaped, coral-shaped or distinctly funnel-shaped,
fan-like or resembling an agaric 3
Fruit-body resupinate or with poorly developed cap 11
3. Fruit-body coral-like or club-shaped with clubs grouped or
branched 4
Fruit-body resembling an agaric or funnel-shaped to fan-shaped 9
4. Fruit-body large, branched with flattened and curled lobes and so
resembling a cauliflower _Sparassis_
Fruit-body of single or grouped clubs or if branched then not
resembling a cauliflower, the lobes being cylindrical or only
slightly flattened and hardly bent 5
5. Fruit-body small arising from a seed-like structure or growing
attached to dead herbaceous plant remains 6
Fruit-body medium to large, simple or branched and usually growing
on the ground; one large species grows on wood 7
6. Fruit-body arising from a seed-like body embedded in the
plant-tissue or found loose in the soil _Typhula_
Fruit-body on dead plant-remains but seed-like structure absent
_Pistillaria_
7. Fruit-body much branched; spores ornamented (see also _Thelephora_
below) _Ramaria_
Fruit-body simple or if with well-developed branches then spores
smooth 8
8. Fruit-body branched irregularly with many to few branches, grey,
white or drab-coloured; spores large, subglobose and smooth
_Clavulina_
Fruit-body club-shaped or if branched then brightly coloured and
spores not large and subglobose
_Clavaria_, _Clavulinopsis_ & _Clavariadelphus_
9. Fruit-body resembling an agaric with spores borne on fold-like,
often forked and shallow ridges and veins, and often brightly
coloured
_Cantharellus_ (compare carefully with _Craterellus_ below)
Fruit-body funnel-shaped or fan-shaped 10
10. Fruit-body often drab colour or greyed with smooth or slightly
veined outer surface _Craterellus_
Fruit-body wrinkled, irregular or smooth and powdery, lilaceous to
chocolate-brown in colour _Thelephora_
11. Fruit-body sessile or resupinate and fleshy; spores borne on veins
united to form shallow pores 12
Fruit-body resupinate or bracket-like, and spore-surface veined or
rugulose but lacking distinct pores 13
12. Spores colourless _Merulius_
Spores brown _Serpula_
13. Spore-bearing layer containing long, brown spines _Hymenochaete_
Fruit-body lacking spines although often having encrusted sterile
cells 14
14. Surface of fruit-body more or less radiately veined _Phlebia_
Surface of fruit-body not radiately veined 15
15. Spores brown _Coniophora_
Spores colourless 16
16. Flesh distinctly formed and fruit-body with or without a well
formed cap _Stereum_ & related genera
Flesh poorly differentiated and fruit-body lacking a cap
members of the Corticiaceae (including _Peniophora_ &
_Hyphodontia_ p. 176)
17. Spores borne on teeth or spines 18
Spore-bearing layer lining tubes or elongate pores 22
18. Fruit-body with central stem; agaric-like but not attached to
cones 19
Fruit-body encrusting or bracket-like, or with lateral stem if
resembling an agaric 20
19. Fruit-body fleshy _Hydnum_ and related genera
Fruit-body rubbery or tough _Hydnellum_ and related genera
20. Fruit-body growing attached to cones and cap with lateral stem
_Auriscalpium_
Fruit-body not on cones and distinct stem lacking 21
21. Spores borne on a series of radially arranged knotches resembling
gills _Lentinellus_
Spores borne on a resupinate layer of spines
_Mycoacia_ and related genera
22. Tubes free one from another _Fistulina_
Tubes united to form a distinct tissue 23
23. Fruit-body perennial and exhibiting more than one layer of tubes
24
Fruit-body annual although the fruit-body can persist in a dried
depauperate form for several months 27
24. Spores brown 25
Spores colourless 26
25. Large, brown, sterile cells present in the tubes; spores simple
_Phellinus_ & _Cryptoderma_
Brown, sterile cells absent from tubes; spores complex _Ganoderma_
26. Large woody fruit-body with crust-like top _Fomes_
Medium sized to small, fleshy-tough fruit-body with downy or
crust-like top _Oxyporus_, _Fomitopsis_ & _Heterobasidion_
27. Spores borne in labyrinth-like or elongate pores, or cap either
poorly developed or absent, and only resupinate pore-surface
present 28
Spores borne in distinct pores on well-developed woody
fruit-bodies 31
28. Spores borne in labyrinth-like pores _Daedalea_ & _Daedaleopsis_
Spores borne in elongate pores like very thick gills, or
fruit-body completely resupinate 29
29. Spore-layer lining elongate pores
_Lenzites_ (white) & _Gloeophyllum_ (brown)
Spore-layer consisting of a resupinate pore-layer 30
30. Pore-layer totally resupinate; flesh very poorly developed
_Fibuloporia_ and related genera
Fruit-body resupinate or developing ill-formed caps at the margin;
flesh well-developed and quite tough
_Datronia_, _Gloeoporus_ & _Bjerkandera_
31. Fruit-body with a distinct stem 32
Fruit-body sessile or with a poorly developed stem, or if merely
with a basal swelling then pores bruising 33
32. Pores dark-coloured but spores pale-coloured in mass
_Coltricia_ (also see _Phaeolus_ below)
Pores white or creamy, foot often darkened or black, and spores
hyaline _Polyporus_
33. Pores brightly coloured, red, lilaceous or orange to
apricot-colour 34
Pores never as brightly coloured, cream, white, grey or in some
shade of brown 35
34. Pores red to orange-red _Pycnoporus_
Pores lilac to violaceous, or lilaceous orange to apricot colour
_Hapalopilus_ (orange-apricot) & _Hirschioporus_ (lilaceous)
35. Pore-surface brown or dark grey and spores often colourless 36
Pore-surface white or creamy, or yellow; spores hyaline 38
36. Pore-surface firm and grey _Bjerkandera_
Pore-surface greenish yellow, bruising brown or yellow-brown and
darkening with age 37
37. Fruit-body lacking a stem, rust-brown, breaking easily, cheesy and
with silky sheen _Inonotus_
Fruit-body with a broad basal hump, fibrillose spongy with yellow
margin to cap _Phaeolus_
38. Tubes forming a layer quite distinct from the flesh; fruit-body
fleshy and tough 39
Tubes not forming a layer distinct from the flesh; fruit-body
woody or corky 43
39. Pore-surface bright yellow; upper surface yellow or orange
_Laetiporus_
Pore-surface white 40
40. Fruit-body medium to large, shell-shaped, whitish brown or silvery
grey on top; on birch _Piptoporus_
Fruit-body often frond-like, infrequently shell-shaped and if on
birch then small 41
41. Fruit-body fan- or frond-shaped, composed of innumerable more or
less complete caps joined together at their base or to half-way
_Grifola_ & _Meripilus_
Fruit-body neither fan-shaped nor frond-shaped and compound 42
42. Fruit-body wholly pale-coloured white, cream, ivory, etc.
_Tyromyces_
Fruit-body except pores usually some shade of brown _Polyporus_
43. Cap thick, corky or woody and pores medium or large
_Trametes_ & _Pseudotrametes_
Cap thin but leathery and pores small _Coriolus_
(i) Pored and toothed fungi
(a) Colonisers of tree trunks, stumps and branches
~Polyporus squamosus~ Fries
Scaly polypore
_Cap_: 100-300 mm. _Stem_: width 25-50 mm; length 25-75 mm.
_Description_:
Cap: fan-shaped or semicircular, spreading horizontally with age,
ochre-yellow or straw-coloured with dark brown, flattened scales in
concentric zones which are much more dense at the centre.
Stem: short, stout, white at apex and netted with pale creamy buff
about middle, but dark brown or black towards the base and attached to
the side of the cap.
Tubes: whitish to yellowish and decurrent with large, angular,
irregularly fringed, whitish or cream-coloured pores.
Flesh: with strong, not very pleasant smell, cream-coloured or white.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: long, oblong or elongate ellipsoid, hyaline under the
microscope (10-15 × 4-5 µm) and not blueing in solutions containing
iodine.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: An easily recognisable fungus growing on
stumps and old living trees, especially of sycamore and elm where it
often forms tiers of caps from late spring until autumn; however, they
decompose rapidly and almost completely disappear by the next year
when new fruit-bodies may appear in the same place, a phenomenon which
may take place for several consecutive seasons.
_General Information_: The genus _Polyporus_ is in most text-books, a
big and unwieldy genus joining together all fleshy, annual fungi
possessing tubes; even the boleti (see p. 32) have been included! Many
of these species are now considered less closely related one to
another than previously thought. Boleti differ from polypores,
however, in their less tough and distinctly putrescent fruit-body, and
in the fact that the margin of the cap extends but does not continue
to grow during the life-cycle; the margin of the polypore fruit-body
is active and may burst into growth again when favourable weather
conditions occur. The ‘Scaly polypore’ has a flesh which consists of
two types of hyphae: (i) hyphae of unlimited growth with abundant
protoplasmic contents which stain easily and which collapse on drying;
and (ii) thick-walled, strengthening hyphae which bind the thin walled
hyphae together. _Laetiporus sulphureus_ (Fries) Murrill ‘Sulphur
polypore’ has a single type of hyphae in the tubes, i.e. thin walled
generative, and only a few binding hyphae in the flesh. It has an
orange cap with a rather thick, sulphur or chrome-yellow margin,
sulphur-yellow tubes and pores and yellow, then pale buff, flesh. The
spore-print is white and the spores hyaline, pip-shaped and medium
sized, (5-7 × 4-5 µm).
_Illustrations_: _P. squamosus_--F 43^{b}; Hvass 267; LH 75; NB 129¹;
WD 94¹. _L. sulphureus_--Hvass 268; LH 73; NB 129³; WD 94².
[Illustration: Plate 44. Woody fungi: Spores white and borne within
tubes--fruit-body annual]
Some common annual polypores
~Piptoporus betulinus~ (Fries) Karsten
Birch polypore
Cap: 75-200 mm, kidney-shaped or hoof-shaped, smooth, covered by a
thin, separable and greyish silvery or pale brownish skin; cap-margin
thick, incurved and projects beyond the tubes.
Stem: rudimentary, simply a small hump below which the fungus
develops.
Tubes, pores and spore-print: white.
Spores: sausage-shaped, and thin-walled hyaline under the microscope
and very narrow, (5-6 × 1-2 µm). It grows on birch throughout the
country where it causes a sap wood-rot which finally converts the
inner timber to a red-brown friable mass. The flesh, which contains
thickened binding hyphae, is used for mounting insects and for
sharpening knives, hence the common name ‘Razor-strop fungus’.
_Illustrations_: Hvass 269; LH 67; NB 117⁴; WD 93³.
~Inonotus hispidus~ (Fries) Karsten
Shaggy polypore
Cap: 100-250 mm, kidney-shaped, yellow-brown to rust-brown, but
finally almost black, at first covered with shaggy hairs, but these
tend to mat together with age.
Stem: absent.
Tubes and flesh: rust-colour; pores at first yellow, but finally
red-brown.
Spore-print: yellow-brown.
Spores: medium sized (8-9 × 7-8 µm) and globose under the microscope.
It grows on various broad leaved trees, especially ash where it causes
a spongy, white heart-wood rot. The flesh contains hyphae with thick,
brown walls.
_Illustrations_: LH 63; WD 96¹.
[Illustration: Plate 45. Woody fungi--annual polypores]
~Phaeolus schweinitzii~ (Fries) Patouillard
Cap: 100-300 mm, bracket-shaped or tub-shaped, dark brown with a
knobbly, velvety, roughened and grooved surface; margin at first
golden yellow.
Stem: absent or short, thick and brown.
Tubes and pores: greenish yellow.
Flesh: deep rust-brown.
Spore-print: greenish yellow.
Spores: medium sized, greenish under the microscope, ellipsoid and
about 8 × 4 µm in size, (7-8 × 3-4 µm). This fungus is found on
conifers or near conifer stumps where it is attached to the roots; it
causes a brown cubical heart-wood rot; the flesh of the fruit-body is
composed of only one type of hyphae.
_Illustrations_: LH 67; NB 111³; WD 95¹.
~Meripilus giganteus~ (Fries) Karsten
Giant polypore
Cap: 75-100 mm, or even up to 200 mm wide, grouped and forming a tuft
of caps up to 750 mm across. The individual caps are fan-shaped,
pliable, rather thin and yellow-brown to snuff-brown with their
margins wavy and cream colour or yellowish.
Stem: replaced by a united mass of caps.
Tubes, pores and flesh: white and very soft, but becoming black on
bruising.
Spores: small, pip-shaped, hyaline under the microscope and 5-6 × 4-5
µm. This fungus is a common sight forming masses at the base of
broad-leaved trees; it is common on beech. It is a soft, fibrous
polypore as a result of the lack in the flesh of thick-walled
specialised hyphae.
_Illustrations_: Hvass 277; LH 73; NB 129⁴; WD 93¹.
The spores of all the annual polypores described above do not blue
when placed in solutions containing iodine.
~Coriolus versicolor~ (Fries) Quélet
Many zoned polypore
_Cap_: 25-60 mm. _Stem_: absent.
_Description_: Plate 46.
Cap: semi-circular, flattened, thin, tough and flexible when fresh
with the surface velvety and marked with smoother, paler concentric
zones giving a pattern of yellow-brown, grey or darker greenish grey
zones; the margin is thin and is the palest of the zones and may be
wavy or lobed.
Tubes: white with small, round and rough-edged to angular white or
cream-coloured pores which become yellowish with age.
Flesh: white, tough and continuous with the tube tissue and so not
allowing one to detect any difference between the tissues.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: medium sized, oblong and hyaline under the microscope, and 6-8
× 2-3 µm; not blueing in solutions containing iodine.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Very common on stumps, trunks and fallen
branches of various trees, especially beech; it is to be found
throughout the year.
_General Information_: It is often associated with nodulose masses of
fungal tissue which are covered in small poroid areas and are very
confusing when found by the beginner; they are simply growth-forms of
_Coriolus versicolor_; such forms are frequently found on old
house-timbers exposed to the weather, particularly window frames where
it forms a distinct rot. Its flesh consists of thin-walled hyphae and
binding hyphae as in _Polyporus squamosus_ as well as an additional
thick-walled type called skeletal hyphae. It would appear that several
polypores are capable of producing the amorphous growths mentioned
above, some of which contain hyphal fragments called conidia.
The bands of colour on the cap of the ‘many zoned polypore’ are
retained after drying and from a group of fruit-bodies the most
attractively zoned can be selected, mounted on small pieces of wood or
cardboard and fitted at the back with a pin. Such preparations make
very attractive brooches and have been used even by modern designers
to contrast with their fashion creations.
There are many pale tubed polypores growing on wood. _Daedalea
quercina_ Fries ‘Mazegill’, grows on oak and has irregular maze-like
pores; _Lenzites betulina_ (Fries) Fries, grows on birch, has tough
plates which resemble the gills of an agaric. _Datronia mollis_
(Fries) Donk forms thick spreading resupinate patches on beech,
sometimes with irregular dark brown caps formed by the upturned
margin. Several species of _Tyromyces_ occur in Britain and are
characterised by their white pores and tubes and the white or
pale-coloured caps. _Bjerkandera adusta_ (Fries) Karsten has a grey
pore-surface and is also frequently found on beech.
_Illustrations_: F 44a; LH 69; NB 117³; WD 51².
~Ganoderma europaeum~ Steyaert
Common ganoderma
_Cap_: 100-350 mm. _Stem_: absent.
_Description_: Plate 47.
Cap: bracket-shaped, rather flat at margin but humpy and irregular
about the middle, frequently concentrically zoned, smooth and only
slightly shiny; its margin is whitish or pale greyish.
Tubes: red-brown or cinnamon-brown, obscurely layered and with small,
white pores flushed with pale cinnamon-brown, but deep red-brown when
rubbed or with age.
Flesh: with a fragrant smell, deep red brown and felty-fibrous.
Spore-print: dark cinnamon-brown.
Spores: long, oval with truncate apex, smooth, but reticulate on the
inner surface of the inner wall giving the spores a patterned
appearance when seen under the microscope; 10-11 × 6-7 µm in size.
_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: This fungus is common on various trees,
especially beech and can be found throughout the year.
_General Information_: This common _Ganoderma_ is perennial and
distinguished from other polypore groups by the complex spores. _G.
applanatum_ (Fries) Karsten is closely related, but differs in the
thinner fruit-body with a thin margin, and the pale cinnamon-brown
flesh; the flesh of both species contains thick-walled binding and
strengthening hyphae as well as the generative hyphae.
So sensitive are the pores to bruising that if a drawing or writing is
executed on the lower surface with a pin, needle or similar sharp
instrument and the fungus dried, the red-brown lines produced are
retained and the pattern preserved. Several fungus paintings prepared
in this way were made in the early part of the century, many beautiful
ones having originated in the eastern part of North America.
[Illustration: Plate 46. Woody fungi: Spores white and borne within
tubes or on thickened plates]