Tricholoma or Lyophyllum

[RobSutton]

Another recent find at Malham Tarn - once again under Beech in leaf litter on Limestone:



Cap was about 40mm across and the stipe had a very swollen base to it. There was no detectable colour change on bruising or on cutting and nothing remarkable (to me anyway) in terms of smell. Gills were emarginate and had a slightly warm colour:



On drying the cap has become a pale brownish grey colour with odd tear drop marks close to the margin - the sort of marks you might imagine as small droplets of water evaporate - I'll try for a photo in daylight tomorrow.

Microscopically there wasn't a lot going on. A few clamps in the cuticle, no sign of distinctive cystidia anywhere and spores white (hyaline under microscope) ellipsoid at about 6-7µ x 3.5-4.5µ.





I think it's possibly one of the Tricholoma or Lyophyllum species but I haven't managed to key out anything satisfactorily in Funga Nordica.

Once again any helpful nudges would be gratefully received.

[Chris Yeates]

dare one ask if you have checked for carminophilous basidia?

Chris

[fairplay]

Nudge, nudge, Clouded Agaric Rob ? (spores come within range)

Neil.

EDIT: But the gill attachment maybe is out somewhat ?

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

dare one ask if you have checked for carminophilous basidia?

Chris

Nope - not sure I've got the stuff to do that? It sounds like I need something like aceto-carmine but that's not in my limited supply of stains etc at the moment.

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by fairplay

Nudge, nudge, Clouded Agaric Rob ? (spores come within range)

Neil.

EDIT: But the gill attachment maybe is out somewhat ?

Thanks Neil - that's the sort of nudge I need! It looks pretty good I think I was thrown by the very strongly clavate stem but apparently this is a feature of young specimens and that might account for the gill attachment as well - as they get flatter then perhaps the gills will look more decurrent?

I think maybe I should have thought of this before - back to fungus school for me!


PS the photos on the MycoDB web site look spot on for this

[mollisia]

Hello,

no no , this is not Lepista nebularis (clouded agaric)! The gill attachment definitely excludes that species.
I would opt for indeed a Lyophyllum species, but then it should have blackened when touched, at least in the gills. It ressembles much Lyophyllum pseudosinuatum. I would send that to Kew ....

best regards,
Andreas

[fairplay]

Gulp

Andreas saves the day !! This is a classic example of why identifying photos on the web is so difficult. In this case I read what the spore size is from 3 different sources and decided they come within range and that encouraged me to dismiss the irregularity with the gills, thinking as Rob did, that it is a young specimen.

Looks like you have to retrace your steps Ron and fetch another sample for Kew.

Neil.

[watsthat]

Good morning

Forked gills are evident; is this diagnostically relevent?

Cheers

Pete

[RobSutton]

Been out to collect a couple of specimens to dry and send off and they look rather different today. The caps are browner:



and the as the caps have spread the gills are looking more decurrent:







I must admit if I'd seen them like this first time round I'd have more likely to think Clitocybe rather than anything else. There also seems to be some evidence of reddening at the base of the stipe where the slugs gave been having a go.

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by watsthat

Good morning

Forked gills are evident; is this diagnostically relevent?

Cheers

Pete

None of the descriptions I've been looking at make much of the forked gills - but as you can see I'm still working out quite a few things so they may be!