Loreleia postii (prev omphalina)?

[diggleken]

Any help with this tiny please!
Found today in a pot which had been in the greenhouse, with a pea plant ordered from a nursery down south 5 weeks ago.
The pot has been outdoors for 2 weeks now.
It has Marchantia polymorpha and some moss - out of the edge of the liverwort this has appeared, with an even more tiny one nearby, so this is looking like it wont get too much bigger..............but I'll check ( if I havent damaged it too much).
Its 1 cm tall at most, cap 2-4 mm I guess. Gills are decurrentish, distant, orangey white with the cap more deep coloured with the stipe also paler with striations. Cap is a bit granular and starting to funnel out - sorry about pics, its so small.
Rickenella F came to mind, but not quite right, then maybe lichenomphalia umbellifera, but thats wrong in appearance too it seems to me.
So, without spores/microscopy, it looks like Loreleia postii (prev omphalina) I think.
Associated with polymorpha and sphagnum with most records from greenhouse pots or burnt sites and a bit unusual, or even rare.
Description fits, appearance fits, but I would be grateful for any further help/advice on ID.


Thanks a lot
Ken

[Chris Yeates]

hi Ken

you do appreciate that there are two Loreleia spp. associated with Marchantia and which can occur in greenhouses? L. postii and L. marchantiae.

Taken from Funga Nordica:

On the macro level. one difference is whether the cap margin is crenulate or not. Yours looks slightly crenulate. L. postii also is striate two-thirds to the centre; L. marchantiae is not or indistinctly translu-
cently striate.

Micro-characters look (as they usually are) more conclusive; key ones are characters associated with the gill trama:

"oleiferous hyphae absent in trama; pigment incrusting, parietal and intracellular" (=L. postii)

"oleiferous hyphae present in trama; pigment parietal, not incrusting. (= L. marchantiae)

I'll get back with more

Chris

[diggleken]

Hi Chris, yes, I knew about marchantiae, even rarer I gather!
I couldnt find much on it though, trawled through a good few sites, no pics.
that a contender too you think?
Thanks so far, is this yet another pint I owe you?
It is of course in Yorkshire too....................
Cheers
Ken

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by diggleken

Hi Chris, yes, I knew about marchantiae, even rarer I gather!
I couldnt find much on it though, trawled through a good few sites, no pics.
that a contender too you think?
Thanks so far, is this yet another pint I owe you?
It is of course in Yorkshire too....................
Cheers
Ken

Both species have been recorded for Yorkshire - of course the plant was bought "down south" begs the question whether it is a Yorkshire record - you could offer to lend the pot to other county recorders who don't have it on their lists yet!;

marchantiae may not be rarer . . . . postii is in Phillips - marchantiae isn't . . . . .

Agaricus postii Fr. the basionym for L. postii was described by Fries in 1863
marchantiae was described as recently as 1971 . . . .

a lot of the records on FRDBI are pre-1971 - see where I'm going?

Do you have The Mycologist Vol. 1, part 1, and Vol. 3, part 1?
one species each is featured there

frankly I'm not sure that pictures will help - go on the descriptions I sent you above; for what it's worth I think it's more likely marchantiae; did you say you had a 'scope but not a camera?(see *edit); the gill trama would settle it

Andreas might have some ideas - I can see why one would want more to appear - I would get it under a stereoscopic 'scope and just remove about half a gill without 'picking' it - shouldn't be too tricky

Chris

(*edit) try and get a Nikon Coolpix 4500 s/hand - that'll do an excellent job (pity so many birders use them for digiscoping - they would be cheaper then)

PPS and be prepared to sacrifice the pea plant if necessary! keep that Marchantia happy