Part 38

Stem: tall, white, smooth and tapered towards the apex, with a white ring which can easily move up and down the stem with handling, and which soon disappears with age.

Gills: free at first, white then pink and finally black, becoming gradually dissolved into a black fluid from the base of the cap upwards.

Flesh: white, thin, except immediately in the central area of the cap.

Spore-print: blackish-purple.

Spores: long, elongate-ellipsoid, large and about 13 × 5-8 µm in size, (12-15 × 7-9 µm).

Marginal cystidia: elongate club-shaped to balloon-shaped, hyaline and thin-walled.

Facial cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Grows in clusters on rich ground, in gardens, on sides of newly prepared roads and central reservations of motor-ways, on path-sides, in cultivated fields and on rubbish dumps; it grows from spring to autumn and sometimes occurs in huge troops.

General Information: Easily recognised by its size, the shape of the cap with its scaly surface and from its resemblance to a ‘judge’s wig’; it is frequently called the ‘lawyer’s wig’ and whereas some common names are not very descriptive and one has to use a lot of imagination to conjure up what the common name implies, in this case it is not so. It is also known as the ‘shaggy cap’ or ‘shaggy ink-cap’. Ink or inky cap is, however, a common name for many species of the genus Coprinus (see p. 211-4).

The unrelated Lyophyllum decastes (Fries) Singer and L. connatum (Fries) Singer are also common fungi growing on roadsides, on soil and compost-heaps. They too break through embankments, soil, paths, etc., producing large craters and mounds of debris.

Illustrations: Coprinus comatus--F 34^{b}; Hvass 172; LH 137; NB 35⁵; WD 82². Lyophyllum decastes--LH 81; WD 14².

~Lacrymaria velutina~ (Fries) Konrad & Maublanc

Weeping widow

Cap: width 45-90 mm. Stem: width 8-14 mm; length 50-125 mm.

Description: Plate 41.

Cap: convex then expanded with obtuse central umbo, dull clay-brown or date-brown and at first covered with flattened, woolly fibrils which are gradually lost with age; the margin is incurved and fringed with remnants of the veil.

Stem: fragile, pale dingy-coloured or clay-coloured at apex, dull brown below the ring-zone which consists of white fibrils; later in development these fibrils catch the spores and the stem becomes black and fibrillose-scaly, particularly below the ring-zone.

Gills: sinuate, crowded and very dark brown or almost black with distinct white margin which is covered in tiny beads of liquid in moist weather.

Flesh: pale buff.

Spore-print: almost black.

Spores: long, dark brown, lemon-shaped and warted with distinct and prominent germ-pore and 10-12 × 6-7 µm in size.

Marginal cystidia: club-shaped or with a distinctly rounded head.

Facial cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Common on the ground near newly built houses, on roadsides, tips and paths in woods, either solitary or in groups; it is also found in pastures.

General Information: The fibrillose scaly cap and stem and the almost black gills which frequently have liquid droplets at their edge separate this species from all other agarics and microscopically it can be easily recognised by the warted spores. ‘Velutina’ means velvety and refers to the texture of the cap-surface, of the young fruit-body. The genus name Lacrymaria refers to this peculiar, but certainly not unique, phenomenon, of exuding liquid from cells on the gill-edge. This has been compared with weeping and ‘lacrymans’ means weeping; the common name reflects this also--weeping widow (cf. p. 154).

This fungus has had a chequered history, for it is also known in some books as Hypholoma lacrymabunda (again meaning weeping) or H. velutina; the anatomy of the fungus, however, is quite different to Hypholoma (e.g. H. fasciculare p. 64). More recently it has found a place in Psathyrella, but it seems unsatisfactorily placed there because of the warty spores, black spore-print and fibrillose cap-surface; it warrants a separate genus, i.e., Lacrymaria. L. pyrotricha (Fries) Konrad & Maublanc is the only other British species of this genus but it has a bright orange cap colour; it is rare.

Illustrations: Hvass 180; LH 141; WD 86³.

~Lepista nuda~ (Fries) Cooke