Unknown Fungi - ID please

[Nettle Runner]

Anston Stones Wood (SSSI) 27 Oct 2007

Found single specimen growing in uncultivated grassland, on limestone.







Cap dia 55mm
Stem 70 x 4mm
No milk, not brittle gills
Most notable feature was the gills - wavy, crowded, emarginate?

I did find an older fungi close by that had a brown cap, but uncertain if it was the same sp

Your comments and observations welcomed
Les

[Fungus Ken]

Helpful description thanks.

The emarginate gills and very pale gills (suggesting white spores), together with the grey cap lead me to Melanoleuca. Beyond that it is guesswork without microscopic information on the cystidia on the gills.

Ken

[GerryNick2]

Certainly a Cavalier (Melanoleuca), my first thoughts were that it was M.melaleuca or M.polioleuca depending on which school you follow. It is dark brown when moist and dries to a pale brown or buff. What puzzles me is that the stem dia. is given as 4mm which is very slender, is this a typo error?

Gerry

[Fungus Ken]

British Fungus Flora Volume 8 has keys and descriptions for Melanoleuca. Both M. melaleuca and M. polioleuca can have stems up to about 10mm.

The common species with a brown hygrophanous cap in this country used to be called Melanoleuca melaleuca (or M. vulgaris). However, the professional mycologists realised that original description of this species related to a different species from the one we commonly find so that is why the name in the books has changed to M. polioleuca.

Microscopically, M. melaleuca is a species without cystidia on the gill face or gill edge. M. polioleuca has distinctive cystidia on both.

The distribution of M. melaleuca in this country isn't really certain because of this confusion, although it does appear to be less common that M. polioleuca. The clue in the field as to which species you have comes from cutting the mushroom in half and looking at the flesh in the stem. In M. melaleuca the stem flesh is pale, in M. polioleuca it is dark brown.

But both of these species tend to retain a least some brown tone in the cap even on drying. I think the species in the photo is one of the grey species without brown tones in the cap.

Ken

[GerryNick2]

Thanks for that Ken, very informative.

Gerry

[Nettle Runner]

Thanks Ken & Gerry for your observations and commentary. It has proved most helpful. Also thanks for the ID to genus level, I do struggle even getting there.

Unfortunately, I did not cut this one, so can not help with flesh colour.

Gerry, I checked my tape recording for the day, and I did comment on the narrow stem, measured at 4mm on site.

This, I believe, is my first Cavalier, so I am more than satisfied with the outcome. I have never seen a fungi with so distinctive gills as this one. I do like it.

Les

[Duke of York]

I have just noticed that I took a photo of this same specimen when out on our foray



and since no-one has responded to my unknown fungi thread I at least can identify one of them - Melanoleuca sp.

PS If someone fancies a challange they could try to have a go at a couple of others on my Dalby Forest Fungi thread

Please