Interesting - and rare? Pholiota

[Chris Yeates]

(for some reason WAB is not letting me send this as one post so I shall follow up with a "part two" )

today in an area of the park next to where I work I noticed clumps of sulphur tuft in a disturbed area with wood-chips/remains following some work earlier this year; there was also a scattered ring of orange-peel fungus, and at lunchtime I took a couple of interested colleagues to have a look at them

it was then that I realised that there was a third species present - the most noticeable feature of which at that stage was that the caps were extremely glutinous and looked as though honey had been poured over them . . . upon picking, the markings on the stem below the ring zone, a cobwebby veil, and white flecks in the 'gloop' were also evident

here is the fungus in the field:


and here are 'studio shots' showing the macro-features mentioned above:


Chris

[Chris Yeates]

(part two)

. . . . . . I was pretty sure that I had got a Pholiota, but it was certainly not one which I had seen before; under the microscope it had four-spored basidia and abundant cystidia - seen here from above as it were:


and here from the side - the cystidia appeared very constant in shape and none that I could see were chrysocystidia (i.e. with yellowish contents - see the links in a recent post of mine on a blue-green Stropharia)


getting pointers from Fungi of Switzerland - I zoomed in on the area of Pholiota lubrica / P. decussata (the latter now considered to be a synonym of the former); and on consulting Holec's 2001 Monograph on Pholiota in Libri Botanici Vol. 20, and working through the key I again arrived at Pholiota lubrica, with one slight caveat - that species should have phaseoliform spores (i.e. bean-shaped) in side view and while several of the ones I looked at were that shape, I'm not yet 100% convinced:


however, the alternatives suggested in Holec's work are much less convincing; I'm making a longer spore-drop overnight as these spores are from a gill preparaations and may therefore be atypical

spore measurements (15 spores) were in the range 6.1 - 7.1 x 3.9 - 4.5 microns (therefore well inside the range of Pholiota lubrica

in the Basidiomycete Checklist Legon & Henrici say:
"Known from West Kent (Limpsfield Chart). Reported from a few other sites in England and Scotland but all records are unsubstantiated with voucher material".

clearly I shall be keeping herbarium material; I would be grateful if anyone with experience of Pholiota lubrica or potential lookalikes would care to comment

cheers

Chris

[cybershot]

An example of a well detailed, interesting query and a plesant diversion from the increasingly frequent crop of 'what's this in the photo and is it edible?' posers from elsewhere. Unfortunately having no experience of the possible species in question my only comment is good luck in reaching a successful and conclusive outcome with this find Chris. We keenly await the results of your ongoing spore analysis.

David

P.S. I appreciate not all have Chris' experience, ability and access to microscopic evidence but a quick reference to FJ's 'sticky' guidelines on identification wouldn't go amiss occasionally.

[mollisia]

Hello Chris,

that is Pholiota lubrica as I know it. The species is not too rare in sw-Germany, mostly named Ph. decussata. I have found it several times in the past and always took it for a dark form or variety of Ph. lenta. I still believe this, despite HOLEC did accept it as a good species. But I can find no differences except the somewhat darker and more orangebrown colour and may be a little richer veil.

best regards,
Andreas