A few more for id

[SheffieldLass]

A few more for ID, these were all found in late October, in an acid upland valley in Northumberland.

This I assumed was Collybia peronata, (or should it now be called Gymnopus peronatus .. it took me ages to find where it was in Funga Nordica), until I checked the spores. The spore shape was exactly right, but significantly smaller than the quoted size. Mine were 5.8-7.2 x 2.6-3.3um. I didn't keep a sample, so can't go back to check it, and that was done before I got my microscope camera and can save pictures and remeasure ... Habitat was a damp valley floor close to Alnus.


The second was on a drier bit of the valley, close to gorse and bracken, with a coniferous plantation close by. Smell iodoform, cap diameter 45mm, spores smooth, nearly spherical, 4-6um. It looks like a mycena to me, but I can't find one to match. I didn't look at, or at least make any notes on cheilocystidia at the time. So I suspect this will remain an unknown, unless anyone has any bright ideas?


The third was in improved/semi-improved cow pasture close to mixed woodland. The photos are the only information I took of them. Do the black scales on the cap point to Gymnopilus? They were ugly brutes, well past their best!


Melanie

[Chris Yeates]

hi Melanie

looking at the top ones gills I would have said Entoloma but you clearly saw the spores; peronata can be very variable so I have no reason to disagree with that

middle one surely a Mycena; dried-out pale aetites or similar? though iodoform isn't really the right smell

as for the bottom one - here is something from left field . . . could it be an Armillaria; they sometimes appear in the middle of my lawn which is some distance from the nearest trees - how far away was it?

that's the best I can suggest I'm afraid

best

Chris

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

as for the bottom one - here is something from left field . . . could it be an Armillaria; they sometimes appear in the middle of my lawn which is some distance from the nearest trees - how far away was it?

I completely agree with your Armillaria.

EDIT; I note you didn't directly suggest it, but that's what I thought of immediately.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

hi Melanie

looking at the top ones gills I would have said Entoloma but you clearly saw the spores; peronata can be very variable so I have no reason to disagree with that

middle one surely a Mycena; dried-out pale aetites or similar? though iodoform isn't really the right smell

as for the bottom one - here is something from left field . . . could it be an Armillaria; they sometimes appear in the middle of my lawn which is some distance from the nearest trees - how far away was it?

that's the best I can suggest I'm afraid

best

Chris

Thanks Chris ... for the first the spores were a slug shape, sort of thin ellipse, thinner at one end than the other, definitely not entoloma ... so I'm happy to keep with the C peronata id, it is useful to know that they can be variable. By the way, does anyone know what is happening with the names of the Collybia, is Funga Nordica out on a limb with the names they use, or are they leading the way? The British checklist hasn't adopted the ones that they use.

I always find smells a bit difficult to determine, however I think I'm ok with iodoform as it instantly takes me back to infant school and the school nurse who used to liberally dose your knees if you grazed them with something with that smell.

And the latter one, I just measured up on google earth, and noticed that maybe 15m away there are the remains of a huge old fallen deciduous tree, looks as if it has been down for a quite a few years, and the stump of another huge one, about 25m away. The wood proper is about 30m away. They could be Armillaria, particularly given the dead trees at that sort of distance; I usually recognise them but these were definitely a bit 'past it', and a rather frisky herd of bullocks was heading my way at the time .... There were actually quite a few of the riverside alders and willows completely rooted up from the very big floods they had a few months earlier, and all sorts of timber debris washed up ... the river had completely changed its course in places. So a good future habitat for wood-rotting fungi there ... they won't be tidied up.

Thanks

Melanie

[mollisia]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

By the way, does anyone know what is happening with the names of the Collybia, is Funga Nordica out on a limb with the names they use, or are they leading the way? The British checklist hasn't adopted the ones that they use.

Hi Mel,

the splitting of the ancient genus Collybia in three parts is surely a thing that will be adopted widely and not only a "spleen" of some.

Now, there are three groups within in the old circumscription of Collybia which are now seen as independent genera:
1. The Microcollybia-group with Microcollybia tuberosa etc., which is now called Collybia
2. The Collybia ss.str. with the major part of the species, which is now called Gymnopus
3. The butyracea-maculata-distorta-group which is now called Rhodocollybia

The reason for the name change in the major part of the old Collybias lays in the type species of Collybia, which is Agaricus tuberosus. So according to the Botanical Code there is no other way that the genus Collybia must include this type species of course. So there is no way as that the Microcollybia-group becomes Collybia.
That makes on the other hand the necessarity to find a genus name for that was makes the major part of old Collybia. There the old name Gymnopus was found to be the oldest available name, therefore most of the Collybias are named today Gymnopus.
And there is a third segregate, which is not very narrow related to the other Gymnopus and Collybia: Rhodocollybia with butyracea s.l., maculata, distorta and prolixa.

These three genera also differ in their way of living:
Collybia (former Microcollybia) are thought to be parasites
Gmynopus are saprobiontic
Rhodocollybia are mycorrhizal

The latter also differ by the rose-cream coloured sporeprint from the rest of those ex-Collybias, hence the name "Rhodo"collybia.

By the way, there are also several changes in the structure of the genera Marasmius, Micromphale and related. So some Micromphale have found their way to Gymnopus now, such as Micromphale/Gymnopus brassicolens.

best regards,
Andreas

[SheffieldLass]

Thanks Andreas for the explanation. I've copied it onto my computer so that I'll be able to remind myself in the future ... I know it is going to take a while for the name Gymnopus to be retained in my brain. I've also marked up my copy of Funga Nordica so that I know where to look now.

Interesting that the three groups appear to have different relationships to their hosts.

Cheers

Melanei