Part 63

~C. ophioglossoides~ (Fries) Link produces long (up to 100 mm high) yellow stemmed, dark and rough headed fruit-bodies growing on the subterranean fungus Elaphomyces--see p. 244.

~C. capitata~ (Fries) Link also grows on fungi beneath the soil surface but has a rounded head. Leotia lubrica Persoon the ‘Gum-drop fungus’ is similarly coloured but grows on soil under trees and is gelatinous. It grows in autumn and is quite common and in fact more related to the Discomycetes than to Cordyceps.

Illustrations: X. polymorpha--F 7^{d}; LH 47; NB 147⁶. X. hypoxylon--F 7^{e}; LH 47; NB 147⁵. C. militaris--LH 48.

F. SPECIALIZED HABITATS

(i) Fungi of dung and straw heaps

~Bolbitius vitellinus~ (Fries) Fries

Yellow cow-pat toadstool

Cap: width 20-40 mm. Stem: width 2-5 mm; length 30-60 mm.

Description:

Cap: chrome-yellow or lemon-yellow when young, paling with age at margin to become cinnamon-buff, bell-shaped but rapidly expanding to become plane or slightly umbonate, smooth, viscid but soon drying; margin striate then radially grooved, often split and the whole cap soon collapsing.

Stem: slender, whitish, cream colour to pale yellow, at apex covered in small, white floccose scales but downy at the base, fragile and soon collapsing.

Gills: adnexed or free, cinnamon-buff, thin and crowded.

Flesh: yellowish, very thin and lacking distinct smell.

Spore print: rust-brown.

Spores: long, yellow-brown under the microscope, ellipsoid with a very distinct germ-pore about 13 × 8 µm in size (11-15 × 6-9 µm).

Facial cystidia: rare, balloon-shaped.

Marginal cystidia: swollen, flask-shaped with a variable, elongate neck.

General Information: This fungus is common on horse droppings or other manures, but it may also be found amongst grass in pastures and in sand-dunes, and gardens on piles of rotting grass stems or straw. It is easily recognised by the colour and rapid expansion of the cap and the sudden collapse of the whole fruit-body. ‘Vitellinus’ means yolk of an egg and refers to the persistently bright yellow cap-centre, so obvious even when the fruit-body collapses. This collapsing is not one of autodigestion as described for members of the genus Coprinus. It is variable both in size and habitat, and I even have records of the fungus growing within herbaceous stems.

Illustrations: LH 153; WD 80⁶.

~Stropharia semiglobata~ (Fries) Quélet

Dung-roundhead

Cap: width 10-35 mm. Stem: width 4-7 mm; length 25-50 mm.

Description:

Cap: hemispherical or slightly umbonate, sometimes flattened and hardly expanding even with age, very viscid, smooth, pale yellow-ochre or yellowish tan.

Stem: slender, straight, white then yellowish, smooth, viscid, but then dry and shiny below an imperfectly formed, thin ring.

Gills: adnate, almost triangular in shape, crowded, dark brown to purplish black, but with ochraceous areas at maturity.

Flesh: pale ochre.

Spore-print: purplish brown.