Halloween fungi ?

[SheffieldLass]

I found these ghostly fungi on Oct 27. I was sure they were just strangely weathered Hygrocybe pratensis as there were plenty nearby, but decided to check them out anyway. The spores were very different from H pratensis or any Hygrocybe, being very thin and long, like rice grains, 6.3-10 x 2.5-3.8um for the whiter one, 7-12.5 x 3-5um for the pinker one ... and were very fertile, many beginning to sprout. Gill trama was like a H pratensis, interwoven and of typical sizes.











Any idea what they were, or what was going on here. Had something 'got' them ... .... I found this a few weeks earlier in September (there were quite a few like this), I suspect the host fungus was H pratensis ...



Melanie

[NickCantle]

Well the way the stipe bulges out in the first image and then recedes to meet the gills is a strong point towards Hygrophorus. Unfortunately, I have no literature to hand at present that I could check those spores up against, but it's worth having a look if you've got the time

[SheffieldLass]

Thanks Nick ...

I'd originally dismissed Hyprophorus as they are thought to be mycorrizal and these were right out in open grassland, I'd have thought well beyond the influence of tree roots ... hawthorn were the closest, a good 20m away, oak 40m+. There might have been a bit of gorse slightly closer. I've had a quick look in FAN .. the spores don't seem quite right on first glance, they look similar to Hygrocybe ones, but I'll look a bit closer ....

One thing I did wonder, but know next to nothing about, is whether the spores were actually conidia from an invading fungus. (And why I hauled out that earlier photo ... ) At first I didn't recognise them as spores as I was expecting to see something resembling a typical hygrocybe type spore ... I saw basidia but not with spores attached ... but there were just a few 'normal' spores which I decided were probably just contamination from a H irrigata that shared the container. Maybe I was wrong in that assumption ... I've got them dried so I can always look again ...

Melanie