Agrocybe ochracea?

[SheffieldLass]

I found this yesterday in grass in a forest ride in Wykeham Forest (at dusk, sorry about photo quality ). Luckily I didn't recognise it as an Agrocybe and probably Agrocybe pediades though I should have done as that grows in my garden ... so I did a pretty full microscopic check, and started to check out what it might be. In nearly all aspects it fits A pediades, but this one has distinctive pleurocystidia which A pediades doesn't have ...

So I think this must be A ochracea. That is what it keys out to in Funga Nordica, and also in FAN 6. It isn't on the British Checklist, though it is on their list of records ... two by Roy Watling in 2007.

cheilocystidia and 4 spored basidia
Cheilocystidia length 23.8 - 36.3um, head width 2.9 - 5.3um, base width 6.7 - 9.3um

Pleurocystidia
Pleurocystidia length 41.3 - 48.5um, head width 6.9 - 7.2um, neck width 5.5 -6.0um, base width 11.2 - 11.8um.


Spores, with obvious pores, up to 2um wide
(11.5) 12.4-14.0 (14.9) x (7.2) 7.7 -8.4 (8.8)um Q av 1.6


I had found what I thought was A pediades in the same location last year in July, but this is now possibly doubtful as I only did a cursory microscopic check of the spores and cheilocystidia, and didn't look for pleurocystidia, as I'd been finding A pediades in my garden at about the same sort of time, so when the spores and cheilocystidia matched I thought I'd got it sorted ....

I'm pretty sure that those in my garden were A pediades as I did do a thorough check for pleurocystidia and found nothing like those of this one, just a few that looked like the cheilocystidia and were probably displaced cheilocystidia, or as FAN says, pleurocystidia very close to the gill edge just like the cheilocystidia.

It is drying and is one, I think, for Kew. But if there is anything obvious that I've missed, please let me know ....

Melanie

[SheffieldLass]

I had one turn up in my lawn on Saturday. When young the colour was like that of Bolbitius titubans, in fact I wondered if that was what it was, as it was just emerging, as I get them on my lawn ... I left it until Sunday to get more mature.



Plenty of the pleurocystida evident in this one too.

cheilocystidia like before.

Just looked at my lawn today and there are a further 4 on another bit. Will these be more of the same or will these be Agrocybe pediades?? Looks as if I'm going to have to keep monitoring them throughout the summer to see if I have both, and if so, if they have different seasons. At least I don't have to go far to find them ... I'm sure some of those last year didn't have this type of pleurocystidium, and these were very easy to spot, hard to miss.

Melanie

[SheffieldLass]

All the ones I've collected this year have had the distinctive pleurocystidia, though they can take some searching out. I've so far only found the fungi in my garden and in Wykeham Forest which is close by.

Agrocybe ochracea doesn't appear on the basidiomycota checklist for Britain, but on the records it is listed and Roy Watling has two records in Edinburgh. So has the checklist not been brought up to date or is there a dispute about this?

This was in Persoonia 2004.
Persoonia 18-3
Which is repeated in Mycobank MycoBank, the fungal website

And I've been using both Funga Nordica and FAN which has it in.

Melanie

[Chris Yeates]

hi Melanie

I've emailed you something you might find useful re this

cheers

Chris