3 Fungi for ID

[hobble]

I have no knowledge of fungi, in fact I realised yesterday I do not have any books either.......
These are all growing out of wood chippings which came from sycamore trees.
Many thanks.

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by hobble

I have no knowledge of fungi, in fact I realised yesterday I do not have any books either.......
These are all growing out of wood chippings which came from sycamore trees.
Many thanks.

Hi

I would say the first is Volvariella gloiocephala and the second Bolbitius titubans.

Mal

[hobble]

Thanks Mal
I will google them. I will buy a book on fungi soon.

[Chris Yeates]

hi

the third is probably Stropharia aurantiaca

cheers

Chris

[cutecoot]

Originally Posted by hobble

Thanks Mal
I will google them. I will buy a book on fungi soon.

Hobble, I bought a book on fungi and still have problems identifying! I think it's because of all the various stages fungi go through, they can look quite different .. and maybe I didn't select a reference book carefully enough, because I often have trouble finding what I've seen! I always post here instead

[NickCantle]

I would second V. gloiocephala, B. titubans and S. aurantiaca

[SheffieldLass]

3 species on a pile woodchips of the much maligned sycamore, and at this time of year is pretty good ... (though is the Bolbitius growing on wood or is it growing from the soil under the wood)

Chris

So 2 or 3 for your Sycamore List, wonder where that thread has gone to.

Melanie

[Ditiola]

Hi
Those anoying taxonomists have changed the name of the Stopharia aurantiaca it is now Leratiomyces ceres

(Cooke & Massee) Spooner & Bridge, in Bridge, Spooner, Beever & Park, Mycotaxon 103: 116 (2008)

Just when you learn a name they change it

Peter

[mollisia]

Originally Posted by Ditiola

Hi
Those anoying taxonomists have changed the name of the Stopharia aurantiaca it is now Leratiomyces ceres

(Cooke & Massee) Spooner & Bridge, in Bridge, Spooner, Beever & Park, Mycotaxon 103: 116 (2008)

Just when you learn a name they change it

Peter

Hi,

In Funga Nordica the genus is Stropholoma, erected in 2007 (or 2008?) by BALLETTO. Invalid, as it turned out some month ater and therefore replaced by Leratiomyces.

Always better not to learn too quick ...

best regards,
Andreas

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Ditiola

Hi
Those anoying taxonomists have changed the name of the Stopharia aurantiaca it is now Leratiomyces ceres

(Cooke & Massee) Spooner & Bridge, in Bridge, Spooner, Beever & Park, Mycotaxon 103: 116 (2008)

Just when you learn a name they change it

Peter

whooah! those taxonomists are anything but annoying actually (and sadly soon there won't be any of them in this country . . . )

there is no point in learning a name if that name is meaningless . . . the taxon known as "Stropharia aurantiaca" unfortunately lacks type material and is represented only by a painting . . . while it has a similar orange cap it is a slender agaric as illustrated and described by M.C. Cooke in 1887, as Agaricus squamosus f . aurantiacus). This may also occur on woodchips but is actually Stropharia thrausta (= S. squamosa var. thrausta), a scarce taxon which, based on morphology and DNA analysis, has been shown to be no more than a colour form of S. squamosa.
While morphologically identical with Stropharia squamosa, it lacks chrysocystidia whereas the species we are talking about has abundant chrysocystidia . . .

as early as 1978 Guzman and Watling were suggesting that the agaric known as Psilocybe ceres was possibly the same as Naematoloma (= Stropharia) aurantiaca, but that the type (in New York) was in poor condition

DNA sequencing of our "Stropharia aurantiaca" has shown that it is a member of a genus formerly called Le Ratia; I don't know who the mycologist honoured by this name (early in the 20th century) was but it breaks one of the rules of nomenclature - you can't have a genus name which is essentially two words (the Linnaean 'binomial' system goes out of the window . . . ) so it is invalid - the new generic name Leratiomyces - still honouring the guy - was proposed; this genus seems to be centred around New Caledonia (think Tropic of Capricorn and N of New Zealand . . . ) - a couple of members are illustrated on the excellent NZ Landcare Research - "New Zealand Fungi . . ." website:

Images of Leratiomyces similis

Images of Leratiomyces atrovirens

look at them - they are there or approaching to being "secotioid" (i.e. in the words of the Dictionary of the Fungi: "the margin of the pileus does not break free from the stipe (or if it does the pileus never fully expands), lamellae convoluted and anastomosed, basidiospores not ballistosporic" - in other words they are on the way to becoming Gastromycetes (effectively an almost meaningless assemblage of unrelated fungi - puffballs, earthballs, phalloids, earth-stars etc . . . . . )

I was discussing all this with a mycologist friend now resident in NZ and he has prophesied that one of the next fungi encountered on woodchip in the UK - and indeed worldwide - will be what looks like a secotioid version of Leratiomyces ceres / "Stropharia aurantiaca" (I know I shouldn't have used that name in the earlier post but it seemed sensible at the time not to confuse matters)

and now I have clarified everything

but please no more talk of "annoying taxonomists" these are the lawmen (and some of them the Clint Eastwoods) in an otherwise lawless mycological Wild West - we'll miss them when they're gone - unless it's easier to call something anything . . .

PS - I'm not going to go anywhere near the "Stropholoma" stuff tonight . . .

cheers

Chris