Clitocybes

[SheffieldLass]

Well I know the first one, Clitocybe fragrans. Smell very pure aniseed. Spore size (6.2) 6.6-8.0(10.0) x (3.4) 3.5-4.1(4.5)um is spot on, as are the colours of the fungus. In grass under Crataegus.




This I can't fit an i.d. that I'm confident is correct. Growing in a troop within a few feet of a bog, so damp, mossy, open unimproved grassland, acid, with bilberry(Vacillium myrtillis) appearing in November and late December (and swiftly eaten by badgers or squirrels). Nearest trees Quercus, about 20m away. Smell is strongly of aniseed, but not as pure as the first one. Colours are much darker than the first. Cap hygrophanous, drying very pale. Gills more decurrent, beige pink becoming mouse grey-brown. Cap 19mm and larger. Spore size is (4.9) 5.6-6.7 98.2) x (2.6) 3.0-3.6(3.9)um, which is a bit small for C fragrans. Gill trama, pileipellis and stipipellis with clamps. The cap is gelatinised. Gill trama cells are inflated up to 16um, which wasn't evident in the one that is obviously C fragrans. Any ideas? Or are they slightly uncharacteristic C fragrans?


And finally, this was found on the same site in 2007, slightly higher up the slope, where it is drier, growing with Hygrocybe laeta. it looks very distinctive, but I can't put a name or even genus to it, maybe it is a Clitocybe, maybe not. Spores were hyaline, (5.5) 5.7-7.8(8.3) x (4.0) 4.3-5.3(5.8)um. There was copious white mycelium at the base. Smell was not distinctive, possibly slightly mealy. The stem stained red slowly on cutting. Cap size 24 and 40mm dia. Just two specimens, a few inches apart. They didn't show this year.


Any ideas?

Melanie

[diggleken]

Melanie,
I think your no 2 also appears like C fragrans, as you say, - the overall appearance and gill structure look right to me from experience with them, but I cant comment on the minutiae!
Cheers
Ken

[mollisia]

Hallo Melanie,

the last one is without any doubt Clitocybe clavipes, now Ampulloclitocybe clavipes.
The genus Ampulloclitocybe is far away from the true Clitocybe and finds its place in the Hygrophoraceae - according to the phylogenetic approach of HIBBETT et al. 2007 and also adopted in the Funga Nordica.

The 2nd one, hmmm ....., very difficult complex this! The biotop you mention is very strange for C. fragrans s.l. and hard to believe. There is a Clitocybe harmajae Lamoure, which is sometimes seen as a variety only (C. fragrans var. harmajae (Lamoure) Raithelhuber). This one smells more like drying grass and only after some time becomes a more aniseed-like odor, but never so strong as fragrans itself. The ecology for this one is in conifer forest on basic as well as on acid soil, but may be always a basic influence by roads is present. So this wouldn't match either from the ecology.
May be it's something completely different. The fruitbodies also look much stouter then usual in frgarans s.l.

best regards,
Andreas

[leifus]

the last one is Clitocybe clavipes

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by mollisia

Hallo Melanie,

the last one is without any doubt Clitocybe clavipes, now Ampulloclitocybe clavipes.
The genus Ampulloclitocybe is far away from the true Clitocybe and finds its place in the Hygrophoraceae - according to the phylogenetic approach of HIBBETT et al. 2007 and also adopted in the Funga Nordica.

The 2nd one, hmmm ....., very difficult complex this! The biotop you mention is very strange for C. fragrans s.l. and hard to believe. There is a Clitocybe harmajae Lamoure, which is sometimes seen as a variety only (C. fragrans var. harmajae (Lamoure) Raithelhuber). This one smells more like drying grass and only after some time becomes a more aniseed-like odor, but never so strong as fragrans itself. The ecology for this one is in conifer forest on basic as well as on acid soil, but may be always a basic influence by roads is present. So this wouldn't match either from the ecology.
May be it's something completely different. The fruitbodies also look much stouter then usual in frgarans s.l.

best regards,
Andreas

Thanks. At last I've got a name for the last one. Just checked up on the pictures and there are a couple that look very like it, though quite a few look quite different, I guess because the caps on those are much more weathered than on mine, though the bulbous base is a big pointer in them all. Once you know that it makes it easier ..... I'll have to try to remember that.

As for the second one, I'll keep my eye out for some more and see if I can pin it down further, the last lot appeared on New Year's Eve, (so we could get some more), the light was poor so I used a flash, and picked just the one by torchlight, as I was coming back the next day, so thought I could get a better look. Next day not a trace, just the Cystoderma that were a bit higher up the slope, that I'd made a note of to locate them by. There is a very small mixed conifer/deciduous spinney 50-60m away, though conifer litter doesn't seem to get down that far, but maybe just enough to influence the ecology. And a small Pinus sapling had self set on a hummock in the bog, but has been removed as part of management of the bog, so there is a potential influence around.

I've just hauled out some details of another aniseed smelling one that I found in November in a coniferous wood (with Pinus sylvestris) and the spore, basidia, gill trama size and description are identical (and so is the appearance) .... so I'm sure they are the same. I'd got a C fragans?? after that one too ...

Melanie