Part 34

~Lepiota procera~ (Fries) S. F. Gray

Parasol mushroom

Cap: width 70-200 mm. Stem: width 12-20 mm; length 100-250 mm.

Description:

Cap: dull brown or greyish brown, oval or rounded at first, but later becoming bell-shaped, finally expanding but for the central umbo and the surface breaking up into shaggy scales.

Stem: straight, tapering upwards from a slightly bulbous base, felty at first but then the surface breaking up into small patches which finally resemble the pattern of a snake-skin; there is also a large, thick, white ring which is brown below and becomes loose on the stem.

Gills: remote, white, crowded and fairly broad.

Flesh: white, thin, soft.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: very long, ellipsoid with a germ-pore, hyaline under the microscope about 16 × 10 µm (14-17 × 9-12 µm), and becoming reddish brown in solutions containing iodine.

Marginal cystidia: variable, elongate balloon-shaped and hyaline.

Facial cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Found from summer until mid-autumn, on the outskirts of copses, in fields, at edges of woodland or in woodland clearings; it is sometimes found in very large rings.

General Information: When this fungus first appears through the soil it resembles a drum-stick with the margin of the unexpanded cap tightly hugging the stem. It is an easily recognised fungus because of its straight and graceful stature with large cap and tall stem. It is one of our best edible fungi and cannot be confused with any other agaric. L. rhacodes (Vittadini) Quélet is not as elegant and has much smaller spores.

Illustrations: F 26a; Hvass 15; LH 125; NB 31¹; WD 5¹.

(c) Agarics of meadows and valley-bottom grasslands

~Psilocybe semilanceata~ (Secretan) Kummer

Liberty caps

Cap: width 8-14 mm; height up to 18 mm. Stem: width 4-6 mm; length 50-70 mm.

Description:

Cap: sharply conical, in fact often with a very distinct apical point, never or very rarely becoming expanded, often fluted and puckered at the incurved margin, smooth, viscid, pale buff or clay colour, but soon flushed with greyish green at maturity and becoming free of the fibrils of veil which ornament the margin when young.

Stem: slender, tough and smooth, similarly coloured to the cap and sometimes blueing at the base when picked.

Gills: adnate to adnexed, crowded, purplish black except for white edge.

Flesh: white or pallid.

Spore-print: purple-brown.

Spores: long, ellipsoid, slightly lemon-shaped, smooth and with a distinct germ-pore at one end and 12-14 × 7 µm in size.

Marginal cystidia: bottle-shaped with an elongate tapering neck, with thin walls which at most become pale honey in solutions containing ammonia, unlike the cystidia of Hypholoma (p. 64).

Habitat & Distribution: Commonly growing amongst grass in fields near farm-yards, on heaths and by roadsides; often it occurs in small troops.