Flammulina - but which one?

[MushroomHunter]

Found 01.02.12.

[Chris Yeates]

well the answer is of course almost certainly F. velutipes (and not var. lactea of that species); you need to get mature spores - you may find that spore prints are hard to obtain in this genus - then you need to measure them carefully and work out the Q-value; then have a careful look at the structure of the cap cutis cells

but given that both Flammulina elastica and Flammulina populicola only have single British records . . . .

Chris

[mollisia]

Hello Chris,

at least for Flammulina elastica I strongly suspect, that "only single records" can only mean "only single look-afters"
My experience (from my area here only!) with this species is, that is is more common than F. velutipes, at least in the areas of willows and along rivers etc.. F. vleutipes ss.str. is definitely the most common in beech woods.
I never had F. populicola, nor F. rossica up to now.

best regards,
Andreas

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by mollisia

Hello Chris,

at least for Flammulina elastica I strongly suspect, that "only single records" can only mean "only single look-afters"
My experience (from my area here only!) with this species is, that is is more common than F. velutipes, at least in the areas of willows and along rivers etc.. F. vleutipes ss.str. is definitely the most common in beech woods.
I never had F. populicola, nor F. rossica up to now.

best regards,
Andreas

Hello Andreas

I did a quick chase up of literature before responding to this - if you can give us some pointers to better literature / keys that would be very useful

I happily bow to your better knowledge on this

Chris

EDIT foolishly I didn't even think of Funga Nordica . . . . I shall spend some time collecting Flammulina specimens and in the meantime will shut up! Why do I allow myself to get drawn into this crazy basidio world - the Asco's are so much easier (JOKE!!!!!)

do you find it difficult to get decent spore-prints with Flammulina? or is it just me?

the solitary British record http://www.fieldmycology.net/FRDBI/F...intGBNum=43558 is from a glasshouse at Kew Gardens on a Protea - this would appear to make it a very exotic fungus . . . . your comments would certainly suggest something different . . .

Chris

[mollisia]

Hello,

a good synopsis about Flammulina can be found here:
http://www.bio.utk.edu/mycology/Flammulina/default.html

best regards,
Andreas

[MushroomHunter]

When I posted this on another forum I got the response 'Flammulina velutipes doesn't have a pseudorhiza' and was suggested F. fennae or F. ononidis.

I posted here after because I thought that someone would have seen these around in the UK as this is a UK forum and the other one isn't.

The spore pictures are not perfect as I've only just started to use a microscope and I'm still getting used to it.

[rich ard]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

Hello Andreas

I did a quick chase up of literature before responding to this - if you can give us some pointers to better literature / keys that would be very useful

Chris

Try Fungal Portraits No. 46: Flammulina populicola & F. elastica in Field Mycology Vol 12(3) Chris

Richard

[fairplay]

You meant FM Vol 12 (2) Richard.

Neil.

[mollisia]

Hello,

Originally Posted by MushroomHunter

When I posted this on another forum I got the response 'Flammulina velutipes doesn't have a pseudorhiza' and was suggested F. fennae or F. ononidis.

I posted here after because I thought that someone would have seen these around in the UK as this is a UK forum and the other one isn't.

The spore pictures are not perfect as I've only just started to use a microscope and I'm still getting used to it.

I know Flammulina fennae as well as F. ononidis. Yours is for sure neither of the both.
F. ononidis grows always on the roots of Ononis spp., means seemingly on the ground, in Mesobrometum and similar biotops.
F. fennae is a yery pales species, which has bigger fruitbodies with longer stipes - and grows in autumn and not in winter (to my experience ...)

F. velutipes and F. elastica can be separated by the spore length. The latter has the bigger ones, so judging from looking at the spore pcitures I would tend to F. velutipes.
The Pseudorhiza is no feature that is good for identification. When e.g. a Flammulina grows on a log, which is superfically detoriated, it will get a root. And there surely are more circumstances which can cause the fruitbodies to grow with a root.

You need the spore measurements (10 spores, laying on the side), then you can separate F. velutipes from F. elastica.

best regards,
Andreas