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Dermoloma magicum in my garden
Field Mycology Volume 4(1), January 2003
DERMOLOMA MAGICUM in my garden Henry Beker 34 Luckley Wood, Wokingham, Berkshire RG11 2EW
L
iving in Virginia Water, near to Windsor Great Park, I am fortunate that I often find interesting fungi on the lawn, including an abundance of Russula, Lactarius and Boletes. The garden has also produced a few unusual finds such as Laccaria fraterna and Hydnangium carneum both under Eucalyptus. Last September (2001) I was delighted to find what I initially thought were some Dermolomas in the garden. I photographed them (the convenience of being at home!) and picked a couple of specimens to determine the species. When I got round to looking at them a few hours later I was a little surprised and interested to discover they had blackened which seemed to rule out Dermoloma. Also I had just returned from ten days foraying in Scotland and seen a number of Porpoloma metapodium while there and was pretty sure this was not that species; the stature was far too small and the ‘gizz’ was wrong. So I decided it must be a Lyophyllum and tried to key it out using Bon (Flore Mycologique D’Europe Vol. 5). This seemed to take me into the area of L. paelochroum for which I found a picture in the Moser & Jülich Farbatlas der Basidiomyceten that seemed reasonably close to my specimens. However I was not happy that my specimens properly fitted Bon’s description of this species. Unfortunately I could not get comfortable access to my microscope (we were in the process of adding an extension to the house and had builders and dust everywhere) so I decided to get some further photographs of the fresh specimens in the garden (also blackening by now) and a few pictures of the blackening process as well as a spore print, and then to dry several specimens. All this went into my ‘for further analysis’ drawer. It was early June (2002) when the dried specimens and my original notes and photos
resurfaced. By this time the builders had gone and I had my microscopes back. One of my first tests was to check amyloidity of the spores. To my surprise the spores were strongly amyloid which pointed me back towards Porpoloma which I felt sure was wrong. According to various texts I consulted there were no Lyophyllums with amyloid spores known in Europe. I decided I needed to ascertain once and for all whether this could be a Lyophyllum so I looked up the test for siderophilous granules in the basidia. Since I had never carried out this test before I experimented with some known Lyophyllum species from my herbarium. Satisfied that the test worked I then checked these specimens and discovered no siderophilous granules and so felt confident Lyophyllum was now ruled out. It was time to produce a full description which I then did. One of the first ‘discoveries’ I made was that the cap cuticle was cellular (perhaps something I should have noted earlier!) which confirmed that this was not Porpoloma and which did take me back to Dermoloma. But there were no Dermolomas I knew of that blackened. Once I had done a full description I then tried every key I possessed to determine the genus. And I got stuck every time. Porpoloma was ruled out by the cellular cap; Lyophyllum was ruled out by the lack of siderophilous granules in the basidia; Dermoloma was ruled out because of the blackening. Then I got lucky … I happened to be on the phone talking to Shelley Evans about various conservation issues and mentioned my problem specimen and explained my difficulty. She was very sympathetic but seemed unable to offer any solution. However the next morning I got an email from Shelley saying: this is probably a wild goose chase but I have just been reading a draft of Alick Henrici’s ‘Notes and Records’ 5
Field Mycology Volume 4(1), January 2003 column in Field Mycology for July 2002 and he mentions a blackening Dermoloma that has been described recently. Shelley gave me the reference and thanks to Ern Emmett within 24 hours I had a copy of Arnolds’ Persoonia paper in front of me. And the descriptions matched perfectly. At last this could be removed from my ‘for further analysis drawer’. Alick has now examined my
specimens and confirms the identification of an English Dermoloma magicum. Reference Arnolds, E. (2002). Dermoloma magicum sp. nov., a grassland fungus mimicking Porpoloma metapodium. Persoonia 17(4):665-668
Top: Dermoloma magicum showing the characteristic blackening of the flesh. Bottom left: Cap cuticle at x 600 magnification showing the cellular structure. Bottom right: Closeup of the gills showing the reddish bruising before they turn black. Photographs © Henry Beker.
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DERMOLOMA MAGICUM in my garden Henry Beker 34 Luckley Wood, Wokingham, Berkshire RG11 2EW
L
iving in Virginia Water, near to Windsor Great Park, I am fortunate that I often find interesting fungi on the lawn, including an abundance of Russula, Lactarius and Boletes. The garden has also produced a few unusual finds such as Laccaria fraterna and Hydnangium carneum both under Eucalyptus. Last September (2001) I was delighted to find what I initially thought were some Dermolomas in the garden. I photographed them (the convenience of being at home!) and picked a couple of specimens to determine the species. When I got round to looking at them a few hours later I was a little surprised and interested to discover they had blackened which seemed to rule out Dermoloma. Also I had just returned from ten days foraying in Scotland and seen a number of Porpoloma metapodium while there and was pretty sure this was not that species; the stature was far too small and the ‘gizz’ was wrong. So I decided it must be a Lyophyllum and tried to key it out using Bon (Flore Mycologique D’Europe Vol. 5). This seemed to take me into the area of L. paelochroum for which I found a picture in the Moser & Jülich Farbatlas der Basidiomyceten that seemed reasonably close to my specimens. However I was not happy that my specimens properly fitted Bon’s description of this species. Unfortunately I could not get comfortable access to my microscope (we were in the process of adding an extension to the house and had builders and dust everywhere) so I decided to get some further photographs of the fresh specimens in the garden (also blackening by now) and a few pictures of the blackening process as well as a spore print, and then to dry several specimens. All this went into my ‘for further analysis’ drawer. It was early June (2002) when the dried specimens and my original notes and photos
resurfaced. By this time the builders had gone and I had my microscopes back. One of my first tests was to check amyloidity of the spores. To my surprise the spores were strongly amyloid which pointed me back towards Porpoloma which I felt sure was wrong. According to various texts I consulted there were no Lyophyllums with amyloid spores known in Europe. I decided I needed to ascertain once and for all whether this could be a Lyophyllum so I looked up the test for siderophilous granules in the basidia. Since I had never carried out this test before I experimented with some known Lyophyllum species from my herbarium. Satisfied that the test worked I then checked these specimens and discovered no siderophilous granules and so felt confident Lyophyllum was now ruled out. It was time to produce a full description which I then did. One of the first ‘discoveries’ I made was that the cap cuticle was cellular (perhaps something I should have noted earlier!) which confirmed that this was not Porpoloma and which did take me back to Dermoloma. But there were no Dermolomas I knew of that blackened. Once I had done a full description I then tried every key I possessed to determine the genus. And I got stuck every time. Porpoloma was ruled out by the cellular cap; Lyophyllum was ruled out by the lack of siderophilous granules in the basidia; Dermoloma was ruled out because of the blackening. Then I got lucky … I happened to be on the phone talking to Shelley Evans about various conservation issues and mentioned my problem specimen and explained my difficulty. She was very sympathetic but seemed unable to offer any solution. However the next morning I got an email from Shelley saying: this is probably a wild goose chase but I have just been reading a draft of Alick Henrici’s ‘Notes and Records’ 5
Field Mycology Volume 4(1), January 2003 column in Field Mycology for July 2002 and he mentions a blackening Dermoloma that has been described recently. Shelley gave me the reference and thanks to Ern Emmett within 24 hours I had a copy of Arnolds’ Persoonia paper in front of me. And the descriptions matched perfectly. At last this could be removed from my ‘for further analysis drawer’. Alick has now examined my
specimens and confirms the identification of an English Dermoloma magicum. Reference Arnolds, E. (2002). Dermoloma magicum sp. nov., a grassland fungus mimicking Porpoloma metapodium. Persoonia 17(4):665-668
Top: Dermoloma magicum showing the characteristic blackening of the flesh. Bottom left: Cap cuticle at x 600 magnification showing the cellular structure. Bottom right: Closeup of the gills showing the reddish bruising before they turn black. Photographs © Henry Beker.
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