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From shredded wheat to flour – a look at stipe ornament
C% &E&FG
From shredded wheat to flour – a look at stipe ornament ?%&$!# 1 his is a glance at some of the species in which the stipe cuticle, or a veil overlying it, is disrupted in some way. In some cases the resulting formation is a useful guide to genera, in others a key character for determining species. This is not intended to be comprehensive review, which would be too space consuming and unkind to the reader, but to be more of an introduction to possibilities.
title. The battered appearance of the stipe nicely offers an explanation for the generic name but in fact the fungus is actually named for Antonio Battarra.
T
Amanita virosa Amanitas – we usually and rightly check for a ring, a volva, the presence or not of velar remains on the cap. The stipe surface should not be neglected. The cuticle is often finely textured, sometimes delicately patterned, sometimes girdled with velar remains. In A. virosa, an elegant white species, the outer layers of the stipe are loosened, appearing woolly/floccose below the ring. (this goaty hairiness perhaps points to the devilish nature of the Destroying Angel!)
Shaggy stipe To start with, here are several where the disruption is more than a thin surface fracture but a disruption with some depth to it, perhaps cottonwoolly, perhaps stringy. Battarrea phalloides Like many another gasteromycete, this rare fungus is a survivor. Although when in fresh growth the stipe may be no more than fibrous scaly, after some months, the surface is hung with stringy fibrils such that it resembles an ancient coconut mat or the shredded wheat of the
2
1
Psathyrella cotonea Not the usual Psathyrella! Not only is the cap densely scaly but the stipe also is conspicuously shaggy. It is found (rarely) in clumps on or near stumps of broad-leaved trees.
0
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doi:10.1016/j.fldmyc.2014.06.005
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C% &E&FG Stropharia aeruginosa This name has been often misapplied, usually to its commoner and much sleeker brethren which inhabit coarse grassland and woodland edges and cannot hang on to their colour. This species, which retains its fabled blue-green cap colour and occurs inside rather than outside woods, is included here as, in addition to a fringe of white scales on the cap and frosted edges to the gills, it has a deeply floccose stipe below the ring.
Pholiota flammans This is a species of dead conifer wood lighting up the woodland floor with its bright gold colour. The stipe as well as the cap is entirely coated in shaggy fibrillose scales. Smaller or more distinct scales Leccinum spp Stipes throughout the genus have black, grey, reddish brown or white tufts or flocci, all clearly separated and revealing the underlying ground colour. The colour of the flocci is important. The genus is too well known to spill much ink over here beyond a warning that in L. albostipitatum the scales are initially white and only discolour slightly reddish with age. This species is restricted to poplar and not to be confused with L. aurantiacum in which the scales are reddish brown from the outset. As this last also occurs with poplar as well as with several other broadleaved species, the host is not to be relied on but the scale colour, or its absence, is.
Kuehneromyces mutabilis When, as above, the stipe is clearly smooth above a ring but ornamented in some way below, it can appear to sport a knee sock or sheath. In the case of K. mutabilis, the sock looks very frayed, as if the owner had been struggling through brambles and it is this character which we look for in the field to distinguish it from Galerina marginata. To be fair, older material of either can be misleading and a look at the spores under the microscope becomes necessary.
Cortinarius pholideus The Cortinarii are not on the whole scaly, so if you are among birch or mixed birch/pine on acid soils and find one with a stipe where dark brown tufty scales on a paler ground extend up to the ring zone, there is good reason to suspect C. pholideus.
The four agarics above are exceptions to the norm for their genus in having a shaggy stipe. On the other hand, such a feature can be characteristic of all or most species in a genus –Pholiota springs to mind. Here the terms shaggy and scaly combine as the woolly fibrils stick together at the tips making fleecy tufts. Hemipholiota populnea, which flirted for a while with being a Pholiota proper, is one good example.
2
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C% &E&FG Banding The veil remains of Cortinarius species may be hard to spot generally but can be visible as thin cobwebby circlets in C. hinnuleus, as scarlet bracelets in C. armillatus or chunky girdles in C. trivialis and C. triumphans.
Inocybe hystrix and I. calamistrata differ in that in both the stipe is completely coated with upturned, spiky scales. While many Inocybes have scaly caps, scales on the stipe are unusual and a useful field character. I have occasionally seen the first species in Scotland, the second, never. It would distinguishable from I. hystrix by a green colour at the stipe base and a marked, some say fishy, smell.
Scurfy stipes Sometimes the stipe cuticle can appear to be ‘roughed up’ just a little, a feature often presenting as a white scurf at the stipe apex only. Typical examples occur among some of the Hebeloma species, H. crustuliniforme for example. Some Hygrophorus species too exhibit the same character, such as H. eburneus. The young Coprinopsis erythrocephala has a fiery orange scurf at the stipe base when young while in Amanita crocea, a fine, orange-tan scurf is present all along the stipe. Elegant patterns are sometimes created where the stipe cuticle has ruptured during growth. The characteristic zebroid patterns on the stipe of Macrolepiota procera are of this type. Amanita mairei and A. ceciliae also have stretch marks that help identify them.
The next two species have small neat scales or bands below a ring. Pholiota squarrosa is a common tufted species with erect scales on both cap and stipe, usually occurring at the base of a range of broad-leaved trees. It first attacks the living wood and then lives off it when dead. While many Pholiotas have golden colours, this species has tawny brown scales on a yellowish cream ground. Leratiomyces squamosa (includes the former Stropharia squamosa and its var. thrausta, and called Stropholoma squamosa in Funga Nordica Edn. 1). This litter species is often first spotted by the combination of a bright orange to tan cap perched on an elegantly tall slender stipe. A closer look reveals a scattering of white fibrillose scales on the orange cap which are repeated in plenty on the stipe up to the distinct ring.
2
Granular Cystoderma amianthinum The surface ornament of this well-known grassland species differs in being distinctly granular, densely covering both the cap and the veil
1
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sheathing the stipe up to the ring. A heavy dew often washes the granules from the cap but those on the stipe usually remain and are then a very useful determining factor. Cystodermella cinnabarina The stipe is described in Funga Nordica as ranging from “minutely to coarsely granulosefloccose”. The collection illustrated is clearly at the coarse end of the range. Under the microscope Cystodermella species differ from Cystoderma in having non-amyloid spores. This species is one to look out for as it is listed as Near Threatened on the 2006 Red Data List. I have seen it in Scotland in a wayside situation on soil or debris under scrub but it has been recorded as far south as Surrey. Punctate Some stipes are just spotty.
Pruinose – with a bloom that can be rubbed off Well known examples would be Gymnopus confluens and Panaeolus acuminatus (formerly P. rickenii). Marasmius torquescens is very similar macroscopically to M. cohaerens, usually distinguished from it by the pruina on the stipe (the latter is shiny). Many Conocybe species are strikingly pruinose on their stipe also.
Melanoleuca verrucipes has very striking black spots almost to the apex on a white ground. Camarophyllopsis atropunctata is a rare species that could be mistaken initially for a waxcap. My material seemed too muddy to photograph and some dark specks would just not clean off…a Eureka moment!
2
There is no conclusion to be reached beyond an invitation to conjure up your own examples.
1
0
,
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$% B#!& # #$& $& G& $%! # B#!& " %$& # $ & !%#%& F =G& & ? & $!# & FG& &
/-!
From shredded wheat to flour – a look at stipe ornament ?%&$!# 1 his is a glance at some of the species in which the stipe cuticle, or a veil overlying it, is disrupted in some way. In some cases the resulting formation is a useful guide to genera, in others a key character for determining species. This is not intended to be comprehensive review, which would be too space consuming and unkind to the reader, but to be more of an introduction to possibilities.
title. The battered appearance of the stipe nicely offers an explanation for the generic name but in fact the fungus is actually named for Antonio Battarra.
T
Amanita virosa Amanitas – we usually and rightly check for a ring, a volva, the presence or not of velar remains on the cap. The stipe surface should not be neglected. The cuticle is often finely textured, sometimes delicately patterned, sometimes girdled with velar remains. In A. virosa, an elegant white species, the outer layers of the stipe are loosened, appearing woolly/floccose below the ring. (this goaty hairiness perhaps points to the devilish nature of the Destroying Angel!)
Shaggy stipe To start with, here are several where the disruption is more than a thin surface fracture but a disruption with some depth to it, perhaps cottonwoolly, perhaps stringy. Battarrea phalloides Like many another gasteromycete, this rare fungus is a survivor. Although when in fresh growth the stipe may be no more than fibrous scaly, after some months, the surface is hung with stringy fibrils such that it resembles an ancient coconut mat or the shredded wheat of the
2
1
Psathyrella cotonea Not the usual Psathyrella! Not only is the cap densely scaly but the stipe also is conspicuously shaggy. It is found (rarely) in clumps on or near stumps of broad-leaved trees.
0
,
& & G& &&G&#$ &&G&" ! %$ &&G& $ & $G& $ #!% # &
&B#!&! &# $&%" $ # #% &!%#%&F &$G&& ) D&F&G& &? &$!# D&FG& $"! "& %
$" 1&0 $&%## $&." $#% &!"% !"$&*9&7>5
doi:10.1016/j.fldmyc.2014.06.005
/--
(
C% &E&FG Stropharia aeruginosa This name has been often misapplied, usually to its commoner and much sleeker brethren which inhabit coarse grassland and woodland edges and cannot hang on to their colour. This species, which retains its fabled blue-green cap colour and occurs inside rather than outside woods, is included here as, in addition to a fringe of white scales on the cap and frosted edges to the gills, it has a deeply floccose stipe below the ring.
Pholiota flammans This is a species of dead conifer wood lighting up the woodland floor with its bright gold colour. The stipe as well as the cap is entirely coated in shaggy fibrillose scales. Smaller or more distinct scales Leccinum spp Stipes throughout the genus have black, grey, reddish brown or white tufts or flocci, all clearly separated and revealing the underlying ground colour. The colour of the flocci is important. The genus is too well known to spill much ink over here beyond a warning that in L. albostipitatum the scales are initially white and only discolour slightly reddish with age. This species is restricted to poplar and not to be confused with L. aurantiacum in which the scales are reddish brown from the outset. As this last also occurs with poplar as well as with several other broadleaved species, the host is not to be relied on but the scale colour, or its absence, is.
Kuehneromyces mutabilis When, as above, the stipe is clearly smooth above a ring but ornamented in some way below, it can appear to sport a knee sock or sheath. In the case of K. mutabilis, the sock looks very frayed, as if the owner had been struggling through brambles and it is this character which we look for in the field to distinguish it from Galerina marginata. To be fair, older material of either can be misleading and a look at the spores under the microscope becomes necessary.
Cortinarius pholideus The Cortinarii are not on the whole scaly, so if you are among birch or mixed birch/pine on acid soils and find one with a stipe where dark brown tufty scales on a paler ground extend up to the ring zone, there is good reason to suspect C. pholideus.
The four agarics above are exceptions to the norm for their genus in having a shaggy stipe. On the other hand, such a feature can be characteristic of all or most species in a genus –Pholiota springs to mind. Here the terms shaggy and scaly combine as the woolly fibrils stick together at the tips making fleecy tufts. Hemipholiota populnea, which flirted for a while with being a Pholiota proper, is one good example.
2
1
0
,
& & G&"##$ &&G& %%$ # % #&&G& $ &&G&$%! ! &
&B#!&%"$ %"& $&# #& $ &!%#%&F &/&G&&? &$!# D&F;G&& &
/-/
C% &E&FG Banding The veil remains of Cortinarius species may be hard to spot generally but can be visible as thin cobwebby circlets in C. hinnuleus, as scarlet bracelets in C. armillatus or chunky girdles in C. trivialis and C. triumphans.
Inocybe hystrix and I. calamistrata differ in that in both the stipe is completely coated with upturned, spiky scales. While many Inocybes have scaly caps, scales on the stipe are unusual and a useful field character. I have occasionally seen the first species in Scotland, the second, never. It would distinguishable from I. hystrix by a green colour at the stipe base and a marked, some say fishy, smell.
Scurfy stipes Sometimes the stipe cuticle can appear to be ‘roughed up’ just a little, a feature often presenting as a white scurf at the stipe apex only. Typical examples occur among some of the Hebeloma species, H. crustuliniforme for example. Some Hygrophorus species too exhibit the same character, such as H. eburneus. The young Coprinopsis erythrocephala has a fiery orange scurf at the stipe base when young while in Amanita crocea, a fine, orange-tan scurf is present all along the stipe. Elegant patterns are sometimes created where the stipe cuticle has ruptured during growth. The characteristic zebroid patterns on the stipe of Macrolepiota procera are of this type. Amanita mairei and A. ceciliae also have stretch marks that help identify them.
The next two species have small neat scales or bands below a ring. Pholiota squarrosa is a common tufted species with erect scales on both cap and stipe, usually occurring at the base of a range of broad-leaved trees. It first attacks the living wood and then lives off it when dead. While many Pholiotas have golden colours, this species has tawny brown scales on a yellowish cream ground. Leratiomyces squamosa (includes the former Stropharia squamosa and its var. thrausta, and called Stropholoma squamosa in Funga Nordica Edn. 1). This litter species is often first spotted by the combination of a bright orange to tan cap perched on an elegantly tall slender stipe. A closer look reveals a scattering of white fibrillose scales on the orange cap which are repeated in plenty on the stipe up to the distinct ring.
2
Granular Cystoderma amianthinum The surface ornament of this well-known grassland species differs in being distinctly granular, densely covering both the cap and the veil
1
0
,
& & G&" &G& #!% # &G& $ # &G& $ =& B#!& $ #& "$
"& $& =& B#!& # #& & !%#%& F G& & & > & " D& FG& & & D& F& /& G& & ? $!# &
/-
C% &E&FG & 7 & ! # %$$ $ B#!& #; #$"$& % "$& # # !%#%&&? &$!#
sheathing the stipe up to the ring. A heavy dew often washes the granules from the cap but those on the stipe usually remain and are then a very useful determining factor. Cystodermella cinnabarina The stipe is described in Funga Nordica as ranging from “minutely to coarsely granulosefloccose”. The collection illustrated is clearly at the coarse end of the range. Under the microscope Cystodermella species differ from Cystoderma in having non-amyloid spores. This species is one to look out for as it is listed as Near Threatened on the 2006 Red Data List. I have seen it in Scotland in a wayside situation on soil or debris under scrub but it has been recorded as far south as Surrey. Punctate Some stipes are just spotty.
Pruinose – with a bloom that can be rubbed off Well known examples would be Gymnopus confluens and Panaeolus acuminatus (formerly P. rickenii). Marasmius torquescens is very similar macroscopically to M. cohaerens, usually distinguished from it by the pruina on the stipe (the latter is shiny). Many Conocybe species are strikingly pruinose on their stipe also.
Melanoleuca verrucipes has very striking black spots almost to the apex on a white ground. Camarophyllopsis atropunctata is a rare species that could be mistaken initially for a waxcap. My material seemed too muddy to photograph and some dark specks would just not clean off…a Eureka moment!
2
There is no conclusion to be reached beyond an invitation to conjure up your own examples.
1
0
,
&E & G&! $ &G& $ ! % B#!& " &# $&G& # !
$% B#!& # #$& $& G& $%! # B#!& " %$& # $ & !%#%& F =G& & ? & $!# & FG& &
/-!