Readers’ Finds

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Readers’ Finds I sent my photographs to Geoffrey Kibby who commented “I can say fairly categorically that this is not a Pholiota of any description. Judging by the dark, almost cocoa-brown spores and dry hygrophanous caps this is one of the uncommon, very robust, Psathyrella species, something close to P. spadicea”. I looked at the cap cuticle from both my collections microscopically. Their clavate to pyriform cells confirmed these collections could be a Psathyrella. The fruit bodies seemed to be very pale for P. spadicea but microscopically they fit the description given for this species. A form with a paler cap was until recently distinguished as P. sarcocephala but is now considered conspecific. P. spadicea is usually found clustered at the base of broadleaved trees, so its occurrence with Taxus baccata would seem to be unusual. Graham Mattock



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uring a visit to Queen Elizabeth Country Park, south Hampshire VC11, on 28 September, 2016, the author collected a cluster of medium-sized agarics near the base of a large Taxus baccata (Fig. 1). They had dry whitish-grey convex caps, a similar coloured stem with no trace of a ring and brown adnate gills. I thought this collection might be interesting because I had collected similar agarics, again under Taxus, near Winchester, North Hampshire VC12, on 30 November, 2013. Both collections dropped long, chocolate-brown, ellipsoid spores with no germ pore. Examined microscopically side by side the collections were clearly the same species. Both had numerous lageniform cystidia incrusted with crystals on their caps and an average spore size of 9 x 6 µm. The robust nature of the fruit bodies suggested this might be a Pholiota, possibly P. lenta, but this identification seemed doubtful.

[Sequencing shows that this and P. cernua are by no means typical Psathyrella species. They are now sometimes placed in a separate genus Homophron. Ed.]

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doi:10.1016/j.fldmyc.2017.04.009

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would appear to be a new county record for Hampshire. From the top S. collinitus is easily confused with the much commoner S. granulatus or even S. luteus, having a slightly radially fibrillose, viscid cap when moist. From S. granulatus it differs in the distinctly pinkish-vinaceous flush at the base of the stem (although it is not usually as well-marked as seen in this photo). From S. luteus it differs in entirely lacking the prominent ring on the stem of that species. Geoffrey Kibby



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lso sent in by Graham Mattock was this collection of Suillus collinitus. The first modern collection of Suillus collinitus in Britain, recorded in the Fungal Records Database of Britain & Ireland (FRDBI), was from Toys Hill, Brasted, West Kent (VC: 16), 30 Oct. 1979 by Joyce Pitt and identified by Derek Reid at Kew (under its earlier synonym of S. fluryi). An earlier collection exists in the Kew fungarium labelled Boletus collinitus from Berkshire in 1868, ex herbarium C.E. Broome. This collection may or may not represent what is now understand as this species and needs a thorough re-evaluation. A look at the nearly 100 records of S. collinitus (after removing duplicates) in the FRDBI shows that since 1979 this species has been found fairly regularly and appears to be widespread throughout Britain although not common. The specimens shown in Fig. 2. were photographed on a grassy roadside verge by the side of a main road on the outskirts of Winchester, North Hampshire VC12.  Several large pine trees were nearby. Having checked the 100+ records for S. collinitus on the FRDBI this

   

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hese photos (Fig. 3) were sent in by Tony Boniface from Essex. Described from the Netherlands in 1991 as Boletus bubalinus it was later moved to Xerocomus in 1993 before being moved to Xerocomellus in 2014 and finally (we hope!) to Hortiboletus in 2015. The initial move was based on increasingly detailed knowledge of gross morphology and the later ones on multigene molecular studies. This species is distinguished by its pinkish brown to ochraceous pink cap, stem with pinkish

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red fibres and cap flesh usually turning distinctly pink immediately below the cuticle and pale blue above the tubes. The flesh in the extreme base of the stem may, rarely, have some tiny red flecks visible against the ochraceous flesh. To this extent it matches the two species with more conspicuous orange dots in the stem base: X. rubellus and X. engelii, both also recently combined in Hortiboletus. Originally thought to be primarily associated with Populus spp. it has since been found with a wide variety of associated trees, including Quercus, Tilia and even Pinus. It has proved to be surprisingly common in southern England and was undoubtedly one of the several species formerly lumped under the catchall name Boletus chrysenteron. The collection shown in Fig. 3 was found growing close to some birches (Betula) in a garden in Chelmsford, Essex, October 2016. Geoffrey Kibby

R. grisescens looks most like R. emetica, sharing its bright, intensely scarlet red cap. It was described as a variety of that species by Bon & Gaugué in 1975. It was later raised to specific status by Marti in 1984. It differs from R. emetica by the tendency of the stem flesh to become faintly grey (visible in Fig. 5), by its distinctly smaller spores (7–9 x 5.7–7.3 µm, as against 8.8–10.5 x 7.4–8.8 µm), its pileocystidia usually with 0–2 septa (2–5 septate in R. emetica) and by its slow but positive guaiac reaction. Its gills may also be slightly arcuate-decurrent. R. emetica is strictly associated with conifers but R. grisescens may be found in both coniferous and broadleaved forests, often in Sphagnum or other mosses. R. silvestris has a more pinkish red cap, larger spores (7.2–9.8 x 6.2–7.8 µm) and is found in both coniferous and broadleaved forests, usually on sandy soils. Its pileocystidia are usually 0–1 septate. The collection illustrated in Figs. 4–7 was found in deep moss in wet woods of birch and pine at Puttenham Common, Surrey, Sept. 26, 2016. Although seen before in Britain (Geoffrey Kibby, pers. comm.) these are the first vouchered specimens and it is therefore the first official British record. It may be more widely distributed than this single record suggests, likely being passed over as either R. emetica or R. silvestris. Andy Overall

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his belongs to the group of species centred around the well known R. emetica, commonly called the Sickener. They are all distinguished by their more or less red caps, white spores and very acrid taste. Apart from R. emetica the species commonly found in Britain include R. silvestris, R. mairei and R. betularum.

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