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Lepiota aspera

[ Basidiomycota > Agaricales > Agaricaceae > Lepiota . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

In my area (central Illinois), Lepiota aspera appears in oak-hickory woods in late summer and fall. On casual inspection it looks a bit like an Amanita, but it lacks the distinctive stem base common to many Amanita species, and the scales on its cap are innate, rather than remnants of a veil. Crucial identification characters for Lepiota aspera include the orangish brown to pinkish brown cap that develops sharp little scales; the flimsy but somewhat persistent ring on the stem, which often has an underside decorated with scales like those on the cap; and microscopic features (see below). Lepiota asperula is nearly identical to the naked eye, but is on average a bit smaller; under the microscope, its spores are substantially smaller.

Lepiota acutesquamosa (sometimes spelled "Lepiota acutaesquamosa") is a synonym; this name often appears in North American field guides.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or scattered, usually in hardwood leaf litter or near woody debris; occasionally growing from well-rotted wood; late summer and fall; widely distributed in North America, but somewhat more common east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Cap: 4-10 cm across; convex to nearly round at first, becoming broadly convex or flat in age, but often retaining a shallow central bump; dry; when young densely covered with soft fibers that separate with development and become aggregated into small, sharp scales with maturity; orangish brown to pinkish brown overall when young; when mature with orangish brown to dark brown scales over a whitish to beige ground color that is exposed near the margin or nearly to the darker center.

Gills: Free from the stem; crowded; white; at first covered by a white to pinkish or orangish partial veil that is dotted with small scales like the cap.

Stem: 4-7 cm long; up to about 1 cm thick; more or less equal; dry; finely hairy; with a ragged, flimsy, but fairly persistent white to pinkish or orangish ring that cannot be easily detached and often features brown scales (like those on the cap) on its underside; whitish to pale brownish; hollowing; base attached to white rhizomorphs.

Flesh: White; not changing when sliced.

Odor: Usually not distinctive, but sometimes sweetly fragrant or slightly unpleasant.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-9 x 2-3 µ; long-ellipsoid to cylindric; smooth; hyaline to faintly ochraceous in KOH; dextrinoid; tending to cohere in groups when free floating. Cheilocystidia 20-35 x 7.5-15 µ; sphaeropedunculate to widely clavate; septate; hyaline in KOH; thin-walled. Pleurocystidia absent. Pileipellis an interwoven layer of cylindric hyphae 2.5-7.5 µ wide, with scattered erect chains of inflated, subglobose to ellipsoid cells 10-30 µ wide (the squamules on the cap surface); brown-walled in KOH. Clamp connections present.


REFERENCES: (Persoon, 1793) Quélet, 1886. (Fries, 1821; Saccardo, 1887; Phillips, 1981; Hansen & Knudsen, 1992; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1995; Vellinga, 2001h; Vellinga, 2003b; Kuo & Methven, 2014. Lepiota acutesquamosa: Kauffman, 1918; Kauffman, 1924; H. V. Smith, 1954; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Bon, 1981; Lincoff, 1992; Barron, 1999; Miller & Miller, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 10050502, 09200601, 09220602, 10240701.


This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.


 

Lepiota aspera

Lepiota aspera

Lepiota aspera

Lepiota aspera

Lepiota aspera
Spores

Lepiota aspera
Cheilocystidia

Lepiota aspera
Pileipellis elements (squamules)



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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2015, September). Lepiota aspera. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lepiota_aspera.html