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Lepiota species 01

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

by Michael Kuo

I find this member of the Lepiota clypeolaria group in Midwestern forests, in Illinois and in northern Michigan. Like other members of the group it is a lepiotoid mushroom with a shaggy cap and stem--but it is smaller than either Lepiota clypeolaria or Lepiota magnispora, and it is consistently bright orangish brown. Like Lepiota magnispora it features a contrasting "eye" over the center of the cap--but under the microscope its spores are shaped like elongated flasks that are often flattened on the adaxial side (the side the apiculus points toward; in Lepiota magnispora the spores are flattened on the opposite, or abaxial, side).

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing scattered or gregariously in forest litter; found under hardwoods or conifers; summer and fall; North American distribution uncertain. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Michigan.

Cap: 1.5-3.5 cm; egg-shaped at first, expanding to broadly bell-shaped; dry; finely scaly with soft, fibrillose scales; pale orangish brown, with a darker, contrasting center; the margin often hung with whitish wisps of veil.

Gills: Free from the stem; close; short-gills frequent; creamy white.

Stem: 3-7 cm long; 3-4 mm thick; more or less equal, above a slightly enlarged base; bald above the ring; somewhat shaggy below the ring; whitish, bruising yellow, then orangish brown; with an ephemeral, thin, whitish ring that often disappears; basal mycelium white and often copious; base attached to white rhizomorphs.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Odor of crushed flesh fragrant, somewhat foul.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 11-16 x 4-5 µ; long-amygdaliform; smooth; hyaline in KOH; dextrinoid. Cheilocystidia inconspicuous and basidiole-like; subcylindric to subclavate; 25-30 x 7.5-10 µ; hyaline in KOH; thin-walled. Pleurocystidia absent. Pileipellis a tangle of short-cylindric elements, golden in KOH, 5-10 µ wide, smooth, branching, septate; giving rise to a trichoderm of long, cylindric elements 125-250 x 5-10 µ, with apices rounded, subacute, or constricted once. Inconspicuous clamps present.


REFERENCES: Herb. Kuo 07280402, 08190502, 09121004.


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Lepiota species 01

Lepiota species 01

Lepiota species 01
Spore print

Lepiota species 01
Spores



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Kuo, M. (2015, October). Lepiota species 01. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lepiota_species_01.html