Part 36

Cap: pinkish tan with slight flush of brown at centre, hygrophanous and drying out buff-coloured or clay-coloured, convex at first then expanding to become plane, but for an obtuse umbo which is retained at the centre.

Stem: pale buff, tough, flexible and smooth.

Gills: adnexed, pale cream colour or pinkish buff and fairly distant.

Flesh: whitish or pinkish tan, smelling of cherry laurel (cyanic).

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium sized, hyaline, pip-shaped, smooth, not staining bluish grey when mounted in solutions containing iodine and about 10 × 6 µm in size (9-11 × 5-6 µm).

Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: This agaric is very common from May to October on lawns and grass-verges.

General Information: M. oreades forms well developed fairy-rings, and is easily recognised by its tough nature, pale colours and ability to revive after having been dried. This ability to revive in moist weather even after the fruit-body has been dried by the sun or wind is a character which was used to distinguish members of the genus Marasmius. However, this is a very subjective character and since microscopic techniques were introduced and used widely in the study of agarics the genus has been delimited rather more critically. Marasmius is close to Collybia (p. 90), in fact many species appear in one book in one genus and in another book in the second genus; M. oreades itself is not a typical member of the genus. Marasmius seems to be a much more important genus in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world; we have already mentioned how some of the small species of Marasmius in Europe grow only on leaves of a particular plant (see p. 92). M. androsaceus (Fries) Fries (see p. 231) is the horse-hair fungus.

Illustrations: F 19a; Hvass 81; LH 115; NB 35¹; WD 24¹⁰ (not very good).

(e) Agarics of urban areas--lawn and parkland agarics

~Nolanea staurospora~ Bresadola

Cap: width 20-40 mm. Stem: width 3-5 mm; length 45-70 mm.

Description:

Cap: bell-shaped at first then expanded, hygrophanous, date-brown, striate when moist but pale fawn or tan and non-striate when dry, and usually becoming quite silky-shiny.

Stem: slender, fragile, greyish brown, silky fibrillose-striate and shiny.

Gills: almost free, crowded and pale greyish brown when young, but finally flesh coloured.

Flesh: brownish and smelling very strongly of meal when cut or broken between the fingers.

Spore-print: salmon-pink with flush of cinnamon.

Spores: medium sized, fawn under the microscope, star-shaped with 4-6 prominent angles, 9-10 × 7-9 µm, smooth and with no germ-pore.

Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.

~Nolanea sericea~ (Mérat) P. D. Orton

Silky nolanea

Cap: width 25-40 mm. Stem: width 5-9 mm; length 25-50 mm.

Description:

Cap: convex then flattened or with slight umbo, umber-brown with a greyish cast which becomes accentuated as the cap dries out and finally becoming silky-shiny; the margin is incurved and striate at first but on expanding it becomes non-striate with time.

Stem: short, fibrillose, greyish brown, shining and white at the base, very fragile and often snaps just above the soil-level when collected.

Gills: crowded, adnate and pale greyish brown then pinkish brown.