Fungal Portraits No. 70: Tubaria confragosa

Fungal Portraits No. 70: Tubaria confragosa

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Fungal Portraits No. 70: Tubaria confragosa Michael J. Hall

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n October 2nd 2016, during the North West Fungus Group’s Keswick weekend, several forayers visited Cliburn Moss NNR some 5 miles south of Penrith. Much of the site is dominated by mature Pinus sylvestris and Betula, with areas of scrub (Sorbus, Crataegus, Ilex and Betula) and a central Sphagnum-rich mire partly surrounded by Salix carr. The whole site has proved rich in fungi with a species list well over 230. At lunch time, a small group sat down on some Pinus stumps when one (Sue Shiels) noted a small group of reddish-brown hemispherical caps in litter apparently composed of woodchips and Betula debris (Fig. 3). Unsure of what it was, one of us (MJH) took a specimen back to the laboratory but no one could suggest a genus. The genus was eventually arrived at using the key to genera in Funga Nordica (2008). Initially

doi:10.1016/j.fldmyc.2017.04.003

the data suggested Flammulaster but the cap was not ‘distinctly fibrillose’ and the ring was persistent rather than ‘fugacious’. However, the alternative at Key K couplet 64 (‘cap ± smooth or pruinose, but sometimes with whitish veil remnant at margin’) ultimately led to Tubaria. Only one species of Tubaria in FN has a distinct ring, namely T. confragosa (Fr.) Harmaja and the description of this in FN closely matched the Cliburn specimen. Morphology The caps, up to 25 mm across, were a warm brown, almost hemispherical, and had clear evidence of a white veil especially at the edge. Through a hand lens, the surface was seen to be flecked with white hairs and had a somewhat matt appearance. After 24 hours the cap centre showed hygrophanous colour change. The stipe

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H !LI!JMK was cylindrical with a firm, whitish ring and was attached to the woody debris by white mycelium. The stipe was distinctly fibrous, paler above the ring but increasingly brown towards the base. In section the gills were ventricose, clearly adnate and reddish brown. The context was brown in the cortex but whitish in the cap centre and down the stem. The hollow stem was stuffed with a loose white mycelial pith which pulled out when sectioned (Fig. 2A). The spore print was somewhere between cinnamon and a warm orange brown.

abundant on the gill face immediately behind the gill edge and occasionally further from the gill edge. Basidia were 4-spored, 25–35 µm long with granular contents. Clamps were present in most tissues but were very obvious in the fibrils of the stipe above the ring (Fig. 2D) where structures resembling caulocystidia were also observed. Habitat and distribution Tubaria confragosa usually grows on sawdust, woodchips or woody debris. Though the species is locally common in Nordic countries, it is rare in temperate zones including the British Isles although in recent years its range and frequency appears to have been increasing owing to the liberal use of woodchip mulching around the country. The Checklist of British & Irish Basidiomycota (Legon & Henrici, 2005) states that it was reported by Cooke but then not seen again until 1975. It is recorded from six Scottish counties, one record from the Republic of Ireland, and in England there are records from W. Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, E. & W. Kent, Buckinghamshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and now Cumbria. The most recent collection in 2016 by Mario Tortelli in Epping Forest, Essex (Fig. 1) is yet further evidence of its spread.

Microscopy The cap surface was covered with a loose tangled weft composed of chains of cylindrical cells 10–16 µm wide and 36–60+ µm long (Fig. 2B). The spores were smooth, ellipsoid to rounded with a few showing a phaseoliform outline, lacked a germ pore and measured (5.9–)6.8–8.0 x (5.1–)5.8–6.1 µm., (Figs. 2C–D). Cheilocystidia were abundant on the gill edge, often clustered (Fig. 2C), and were mostly cylindrical and straight, with a smaller number curved, undulating or bluntly ended. They were 30–51 µm long and from 6 to 9 µm wide. The genus Tubaria is generally considered not to have pleurocystidia but structures identical to the cheilocystidia were

Michael J. Hall [email protected]

References Legon, N. & Henrici, A. (2005). Checklist of the British & Irish Basidiomycota. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Petersen, J.H. & Vesterholt, J. (2008). Key to genera in: Funga Nordica (1st edition). Nordsvamp.

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