scleroderma question

[thebeard]

just wondering, is this Scleroderma areolatum, or is it just S. citrinum? just thought it looked a little different to any of the other ones i usually found. image is a little overexposed i'm afraid!

[NickCantle]

S. citrinum I would say. S. areolatum is generally less texture, more pattern

[Chris Yeates]

hi

this is interesting . . .

the initial post shows Scleroderma citrinum without a doubt; a well-developed fruitbody when cut in half would show a thick peridium (outer skin) also no pseudostipe (false stem); the spores have a characteristic reticulate ornamentation:



areolatum has a thinner skin and spiny spores - but it also has a very short pseudostipe and the outer ornamentation has scales with distinctive ring-zones around them

the image on Nick's post shows a very distinct pseudostipe and no ring-zones:
it is not S. areolatum - it is S. verrucosum, which has similar spiny spores:


(NB images not to same scale)

cheers

Chris

[NickCantle]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the interesting follow-up, though I'm really, quite confused

Could you define 'ring-zones' when it comes to the aesthetics? In all S. areolatum photographs I have looked at, I can't see any ornamentation that is that different to your suggestion of S. verrucosum.

Is there anything online that I could refer to, to aid my understanding of this?

Thank you!

Nick

[Chris Yeates]

hi Nick

for starters the pseudostipe on yours immediately says not areolatum to me . . . .

I understand your confusion as this seems a good example of where some images on the net are not necessarily what they say for example MushroomExpert.Com - tempting Providence calling yourself that imo - seems to show a mixture and the telling comment there is: "A look at the spores of Scleroderma areolatum, however, eliminates the other possibilities. The spores are densely spiny but not reticulate, measuring 11-15 µ, with spines up to 2 µ long."

unfortunately looking at the spores does not rule out verrucosum - see spore image added above though its spores are rather smaller than areolatum; and Scleroderma cepa similarly doesn't have reticulate spores - though the spines on its spores are much stouter, and could be described as pointed warts . . .

the closest I can see - and it is getting a bit near bedtime - is:

Scleroderma areolatum Ehrenb., 1818 (Leopard Earthball) on Malcolm Storey's site - note the discrete, similarly-sized scales with faint echoes of mini-scales around them; your image shows irregular scales, almost maze-like in places, without these faint rings of mini-scales - does that make sense?

of course all this is only my opinion; the Kew book ISBN 0 947643 81 8 is very useful for this and other gasteroid genera

cheers

Chris

[SheffieldLass]

Another to add to the melting pot ....



These were fairly thin skinned ...

Melanie

[thebeard]

thanks for the info, thats prety interesting. i always struggle to differentiate this genus, often its just dismissed as 'just an earthball'