Growing in Sphagnum

[RobSutton]

I suspect this is an impossible one but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Found growing in Sphagnum under Birch at Malham Tarn. Cap about 12-16mm diameter, no really obvious taste or smell apart from a general fungusy one.



Microscopy
Spores:


Cheilocystidia:


I thought it must be a Galerina when I looked at the spores and cheilocystidia but the hyphae in the cap seemed a lot larger than anything mentioned in FoS. The shot was take at x40 which makes the hyphae something between 12µ and 21µ wide. They also seemed to be partially encrusted which perhaps doesn't show up well in the photo.

Hyphae from pileus - with clamp:


Any thoughts, comments, considered deliberations or wild guesses gratefully received as ever.

[Chris Yeates]

hi Rob

you do have a Galerina there; I strongly suspect that it is G. paludosa: it is the commonest of several which can occur in Sphagnum, is generally the earliest of those to appear, has whitish velar remants on the stem (as does yours - well done for taking a shot in situ, such characters are often removed by careless collecting)

spores and cheilocystidia look OK as well (though, of course characters such as the nature and extent of spore ornamentation, the type of so-called 'plage' etc, do require oil immersion)

FoS does of course only have a portion of the 60+ Galerina species recorded for GB and Ireland (heaven help people just using Phillips - which has 4 species plus mutabilis - and one of those is very rare!)

I wonder if the hyphae you have been measuring are not strictly from the pileipellis, but have come from further within the cap? I know I sometimes have difficulties when assessing this part of an agaric's anatomy . . . .

cheers

Chris

[RobSutton]

Hi Chris

Many thanks once again - I'll have to have another go at the pileipellis. The section did end up as a bit of a chunk rather than a nice thin slice.

[mollisia]

Hello,

in my opinion this is undoubtly Galerina paludosa. A species which is so charateristic, that with a little experience you can determine macroscopically, at least in the younger states.

best regards,
Andreas

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by mollisia

Hello,

in my opinion this is undoubtly Galerina paludosa. A species which is so charateristic, that with a little experience you can determine macroscopically, at least in the younger states.

best regards,
Andreas

Many thanks Andreas for you input - I shall label the picture up as Galerina paludosa.

Yours