Part 31

~H. nitrata~ (Persoon) Wunsche is as dull coloured as H. unguinosa, but is not slimy, and in addition strongly smells of cleaning fluid or bleaching-powder. It is one of three dull coloured, strong bleaching-powder-smelling species found in Britain. H. ovina is another, but is darker than H. nitrata and becomes red when bruised or cut.

~H. metapodia~ (Fries) Moser has a sooty brown fibrillose-streaky cap and stem. The gills are distant and grey, and the fruit-body may reach up to 100 mm across. It is probably the biggest of our native species of Hygrocybe.

For completion examples of Hygrophorus include:

~H. bresadolae~ Quélet has a slimy orange-yellow cap, yellow gills and yellow, slimy, smooth stem. It is found under larch trees.

~H. chrysaspis~ Métrod has ivory white cap, stem and gills which soon become flushed with rust-brown and finally the whole fruit-body becomes red-brown. The stem is slimy and white dotted at the apex. It grows in beech woods.

~H. hedrychii~ Velenovsky has a slimy cream-coloured cap flushed with pale peach colour. The gills and stem are cream and the latter slimy and dotted at the top. It is found in pine woods.

~H. hypothejus~ (Fries) Fries has an olive-brown slimy cap, yellow stem and gills; the stem is slimy and smooth. It is found in pine woods and under pines on heaths.

~H. pustulatus~ (Persoon) Fries has an ash-grey cap brownish towards its centre, viscid white stem with dark grey dots at the apex and white gills. H. agathosmus (Secretan) Fries is similar, but smells strongly of bitter almonds. Both species are found in plantations.

Species of the genus Hygrophorus are infrequently encountered in Britain, although twenty species are recorded for the British Isles. They are ecologically distinct from members of the genus Hygrocybe in preferring woodland communities to grassland areas; they are probably mycorrhizal. The anatomy of the fruit-body is also rather different to that found in Hygrocybe; the gill-trama is bilateral as in Leccinum (p. 27), Suillus (p. 28), Boletus (p. 31), Chroogomphus (p. 36), Paxillus (p. 38) and Amanita (p. 54). Members of the genus Hygrocybe have regular to irregular gill-tramas. In fact, although both genera are united into a single family, the Hygrophoraceae is based on one character common to both, i.e. the long basidium; there is every indication that the genus Hygrocybe has greater affinity to Omphalina in the Tricholomataceae (p. 232).

Surprisingly enough in North America many of our familiar grassland species including H. pratensis are to be found in deep shaded woodland!

Angular, pink-spored agarics--Rhodophyllaceae

The name of the family refers to the pink gills and it unites all those fungi with a salmon-pinkish buff spore-print and whose spores are angular in all optical sections. There are a few agarics, e.g. Clitopilus prunulus (Fries) Kummer with ridged spores which appear angular in end-on view, but which are ellipsoid in both side and face views and so are considered less related.

The family Rhodophyllaceae by some authorities contains one genus Rhodophyllus, more correctly called Entoloma; in the British Isles five constituent genera are recognised, but they will have to be more critically defined to make a more meaningful classification. At the moment, many of the species are poorly documented and it would appear that anatomical studies will assist in the future in the recognition of species-groups.

If one selects the eight most distinctive shaped spore-types exhibited in members of this family, then when their spores are examined side-on a feature is available for correlation with the traditional field characters, such as cap scaliness and gill-attachment. The most distinctive spore-shape is Type G, found in Nolanea staurospora Bresadola, which is probably the most common and widespread species of the family. It grows in woodlands, grassland and on lawns and will be dealt with later (p. 122). The other spore types are illustrated and range from irregularly rhomboid to elongate angular.

The majority of the members of this group grow in grassland, hill-pastures and meadows and distinct communities containing members of this family and of the Hygrophoraceae can be recognised. It is not proposed to deal in detail with any individual members because they can be so easily confused with each other by the specialist let alone by the amateur.

However, the genera as at present accepted are as follows:--

1. ~Entoloma~ in its original sense contains agarics with fleshy caps, fibrous stems and sinuate or adnexed gills, e.g. Ent. clypeatum (Fries) Kummer with grey to yellow-brown cap, found growing with members of the apple and rose-family in the summer and early autumn. This genus corresponds to Calocybe in the white-spored agarics (p. 110).

2. ~Leptonia~ contains those agarics with rather thin caps whose margin is incurved, cartilaginous stems and adnate to adnexed, rarely decurrent, gills and whose cap flesh is indistinct from that of the stem, e.g. Lept. serrulata (Fries) Kummer with dark blue to violet-blue cap and dark blue edge to the gills. This genus approaches the tough-shanks (Collybia) in the white-spored genera (p. 90).

3. ~Nolanea~ is characterised by agarics with delicate caps, whose flesh is distinct from that of the stem and whose edge is straight and pressed against the fragile stem when young, and the adnexed or adnate, rarely decurrent, gills, e.g. N. staurospora (see p. 122). N. cetrata (Fries) Kummer with yellow-brown to tan-coloured cap is found from spring to autumn in conifer woodland, especially plantations. The genus corresponds to Mycena in the white-spored agaric genera (p. 68).

4. ~Eccilia~ is a small genus containing agarics with thin, membranous caps and distinctly decurrent gills, e.g. E. sericeonitida P. D. Orton with convex, then umbilicate, silky greyish brown cap. This genus corresponds to Omphalina in the white-spored agarics (p. 232).

5. ~Claudopus~ has three British representatives, all of which have a very small stem which may even be absent, e.g. C. depluens (Fries) Gillet grows on soil and C. parasiticus (Quélet) Ricken grows on old decaying fruit-bodies of woody fungi. This genus corresponds to Pleurotellus in the white-spored genera and to Crepidotus in the brown-spored genera (p. 77).

~Cystoderma amianthinum~ (Fries) Fayod

Cap: width 15-35 mm. Stem: width 4-8 mm; length 15-30 mm.

Description:

Cap: pale ochraceous yellow to sand-colour, convex then expanded, with central umbo and often radially wrinkled-reticulate, covered completely in powdery granules when fresh but these gradually disappear with age or on excessive handling.

Stem: slender, white above a narrow, easily lost ring which is composed of floccose, ochraceous yellow granules which also clothe the lower part of the stem.

Gills: adnate, cream-coloured and crowded.

Flesh: yellowish with a strong smell of new-mown hay.