Xerula furfuracea

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Marasmiaceae > Xerula . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Xerula furfuracea is the largest, brownest species of Xerula on our continent. It is distributed throughout eastern North America, where it pops up alone or gregariously in association with the buried, dead roots of hardwoods--though it usually grows "terrestrially" rather than directly from the wood. The stem of Xerula furfuracea is usually brownish and finely hairy, and as the mushroom grows the brown often gets stretched out into a sort of snakeskin or chevron pattern.

Most other North American Xerula species are a bit smaller than Xerula furfuracea, and many have paler (whitish to tan or dull brown) caps. However, Xerula furfuracea does not always grow to capacity, and it is not infrequently a paler shade of brown than it "should be." Such specimens are best identified with microscopic examination (see the microscopic characters below, and the key to 8 Xerula taxa in North America).

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on decaying debris of hardwoods--but not typically growing on logs or stumps, unless they are well decomposed; usually terrestrial; spring through fall; fairly widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains.

Cap: 2-12 cm; convex to bell-shaped when young, becoming broadly convex to flat in age and typically retaining a central bump; smooth or, more often, wrinkled and puckered over the center; greasy in normal weather conditions; dark brown to grayish brown or yellow-brown, but not infrequently fading to brownish or buff; the margin incurved when young, sometimes uplifted in maturity, not lined.

Gills: Attached to the stem or notched; almost distant, or close; whitish; thick. Gills of dried specimens become dingy yellowish to brownish or very pale orangish after several years in storage (compare to Xerula megalospora).

Stem: 7-15 cm long above ground; .5-1.5 cm thick; typically tapering to apex; usually finely hairy; white near the apex but colored like the cap below; with maturity the brown areas often stretched into snakeskin or chevron patterns; rather stiff; with a long, tapered tap root extending underground; the tap root sometimes bruising rusty brown.

Flesh: Whitish, thin.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 14-17 x 9.5-12 µ; smooth; inamyloid; elliptical to broadly ovoid. Cheilocystidia narrowly fusoid to fusoid-ventricose; up to 135 x 20 µ. Pleurocystidia fat-cylindric, often with very slightly swollen apices or with a shallow subapical constriction; thin-walled; hyaline. Pileipellis hymeniform and somewhat gelatinized; pileocystidia frequent, thin-walled, hyaline, up to 150 x 13 µ. Caulocystidia abundant; bundled; up to 155 x 20 µ; cylindric to narrowly fusoid; thin-walled.

REFERENCES: (Peck, 1892) Redhead, Ginns & Shoemaker, 1987. (Redhead, Ginns & Shoemaker, 1987; Phillips, 1991/2005; Petersen & Methven, 1994; Barron, 1999; Roody, 2003; McNeil, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 06279501, 06080302, 09300401, 08290506, 05210702, 05310706.

Further Online Information:

Xerula furfuracea at Roger's Mushrooms

Spores and Pleurocystidium (x 2.5 µ)

Cheilocystidia

Pileipellis with pileocystidia

Caulocystidia

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2008, October). Xerula furfuracea. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/xerula_furfuracea.html