Part 25

Illustrations: LH 103; WD 13¹.

~Clitocybe infundibuliformis~ (Weinm.) Quélet

Common funnel-cap

Cap: width 20-60 mm. Stem: width 8-13 mm; length 35-75 mm.

Description:

Cap: yellowish ochre flushed slightly pinkish buff or cinnamon but later pale tan on ageing or drying, funnel shaped.

Stem: colour like cap or slightly darker, flexible but firm and solid.

Gills: white or faintly flushed buff, decurrent and crowded.

Flesh: with pleasant slightly floral smell, white, soft and fairly thin.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium-sized, hyaline, tear-drop shaped, smooth, 6-7 × 3-4 µm and not blueing when mounted in solutions containing iodine.

Marginal cystidia: little different from young basidia in dimension and shape, although some may have a short apical prolongation.

Facial cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Woods, copses, heaths and hill-pastures from summer to autumn.

General Information: An easily recognisable fungus because of its graceful stature, thin, funnel-shaped pinkish buff cap and tear-drop-shaped spores. Several Clitocybe species grow in woodlands, many of them appearing later in the season when colourful agarics are rarer.

The genus Clitocybe is characterised by the fleshy cap with incurved margin when young, fibrous, fleshy stem and decurrent gills. C. clavipes (Fries) Kummer has a smoky brown, top-shaped cap, fragile stem which also has a distinct swelling at its base, and strong rather unpleasant smell. C. nebularis (Fries) Kummer is similar, but is pale cloudy grey, has a less fragile stem and a fairly pleasant smell. This species if often covered in a bloom which develops further as the fruit-body deteriorates. The agaric Volvariella surrecta (Knapp) Singer is a rare parasite of C. nebularis (see p. 247) and it has been suggested that this bloom may in fact belong to this species. However, I have on several occasions tried to encourage the bloom to reproduce by keeping hoary looking fruit-bodies of C. nebularis in a damp-chamber, but as yet I have never been successful.

Nevertheless, it is an exercise which would be of great interest to continue and a source of great excitement if the small pink-spored agaric were produced. C. fragrans (Fries) Kummer is a small, sweetly aromatic-smelling species found in frondose woods, and C. langei Hora, is a mealy-smelling species of conifer plantations.

Illustrations: F 16a; Hvass 55; LH 95; WD 16².

~Hebeloma crustuliniforme~ (St Amans) Quélet

Fairy-cake mushroom

Cap: width 40-80 mm. Stem: width 8-12 mm; length 38-85 mm.

Description:

Cap: pale yellow buff or pale tan with a distinct reddish buff or cinnamon-brown tint, darkening only slightly with age; smooth, at first tacky to the fingers, but then dry and shiny at centre, convex and hardly expanding.

Stem: cylindrical or slightly swollen towards the base, whitish and with a flush of pinkish buff at apex, and covered all over in small, white scales.

Gills: sinuate, crowded, pale clay-colour or buff, but finally dull dark yellow ochre except for the distinct white margins which are beaded in wet weather with droplets of liquid.

Flesh: whitish with a very strong smell of radishes.

Spore-print: dark clay-colour.

Spores: long, slightly almond-shaped, pale brown under the microscope, distinctly warted and about 11 × 6 µm in size (10-12 × 6-7 µm).