Laccaria fraterna

[Chris Yeates]

new to this forum so apologise if I take a while to get up to speed!

best wishes to all

Chris

[NickCantle]

Evening Chris, and a very warm welcome to WAB.

Could you possibly enlighten us what it is that makes this species of Laccaria different from the others?

Nick

PS- I've read somewhere that this species is Mycorrhizal with Eucalyptus. Is that correct?

[Chris Yeates]

thanks Nick

I put some info on this when I added the image to the image library, perhaps I should have done it on here?

following the key in Flora Agaricina Neerlandica Vol 3 (Tricholomataceae)
the key characters are
lack of any purplish/amethyst colouring
dry cap surface (this rules out the viscous-capped dune species L. maritima, which I think has only been recorded on the Culbin Sands)
almost exclusively 2-spored basidia
this is the most important as it rules out all remaining Laccarias except L. tortilis which is a short-stiped species of seasonally wet habitats and which has larger spores - up to 15 microns, and L. pumila which is an arctic-alpine species with small caps (7 to 25mm diameter as opposed to the 20-40mm of L. fraterna)

you are absolutely correct that it is mycorrhizal with Eucalypts and I think it is probably true to say that most Laccarias growing with Eucalyptus will turn out to be this (it must therefore be an alien species) though you really need to check basidia and spore dimensions; once I found out about it I went to the nearest Eucalyptus to where I live (some 300 metres away in Greenhead Park, Huddersfield) and there it was

Chris

[flaxton]

Hi Chris
When you check the Yorkshire records at the end of this year (if you are that CSVYeates) you will find a new record from Castle Howard Arboretum under Eucalyptus.

Mal

Ps Nick yes I mentioned this a short while ago but never got round to adding it to the A-Z

[fairplay]

Hello Chris & welcome !!

To be honest I haven't paid much attention to L.fraterna, but have now copied your info into my copy of Phillips as it is not included there.

I notice it is included in Jordan, however here it says "....... in boggy areas with Alders. Also included in other habitats."

Fungi of Switzerland too states Alder, also Salix, but again, no mention of Eucalyptus.

Whilst I accept what you say about it being mycorrhizal with Eucalypts and that therefore it is an alien species, it seems it has adapted well with native trees and obviously is not confined solely to Eucalypts, though you never said it was.

So Chris, my first question for you : Is it best to go hunting for this in Alder Carr or in my local park where Eucalypts are more likely to be.
(and I've just realised, Eucalypts don't like boggy ground do they ?)

Neil.

[Chris Yeates]

hi

you pose some good questions here; I was first made aware of this species on a BMS foray to Cornwall in 2000, many of the 'top' people were there, including Alick Henrici (of the new Basidiomycete checklist) and there was a lot of talk about it as it was quite common in the grounds of the place we were staying at, under Eucalyptus; the Eucalyptus link was considered to be unequivocal and if you check out the first few issues of Field Mycology, this species appears quite a bit

specimens were collected and deposited and confirmed at Kew; a couple of years later when I moved to where I live now I found it under the Eucalyptus
from which those in the photo were also found (I have kept voucher material)

I have vol. 3 of Breitenbach and Krantzlin open next to me; I have wondered what the species in that book under this name is and suspect that it is what British mycologists would call Laccaria pumila Fayod, also 2-spored but with a different habit; B & K say the cap diameter is 10 - 25mm which is in line with pumila and of course Swizerland is somewhat alpine!

I have just checked the 2005 "Checklist of the British and Irish Basidiomycota" published by RBG, Kew and for L. fraterna it says "on soil in parkland and gardens, always with Eucalyptus spp. . . . . rarely reported but possibly increasing. See Last and Watling in Mycologist (12) 4 pp. 152-153 (1998)"
Under L. pumila it talks of it being recorded in montane habitats in Scotland and that records from England (including Yorkshire) and the Isle of Man are unsubstantiated by voucher material (and are therefore, by implication, very iffy)

I note that this checklist which is the exhaustive outcome of a lot of work by very knowledgeable mycologists has just 9 Laccaria spp. whereas the BMS Fungal Records Database lists 16 - this is in line with the latter being much less 'critical' and also, sadly, full of errors, slips, double recording etc. (yet still a valuable dataset which needs to be approached with caution, and the authors acknowledge its shortcomings)

as for "your damp places under Alnus and Salix" I would suggest that if you find Laccaria in that habitat and it has 2-spored basidia and stipes longer than 25mm and spores mostly below 11 microns diameter then you might have extended the range of pumila and I would send material to Kew

phew! . . . time for sleep I think

hope that is understandable

cheers

Chris

[fairplay]

Thanks for that detailed reply Chris, message understood, will keep my eyes skinned.

Neil.