Part 70

General Information: This species grows from spring to early autumn in Sphagnum bogs; several other species of Galerina are also found in the same localities:--

(i) G. sphagnorum (Fries) Kühner has a convex cap, fibrillose silky and ochraceous brown stem, but it lacks the ring-zone so typical of G. paludosa. The smell is like that of meal when crushed and the gills are emarginate.

(ii) G. tibiicystis (Atkinson) Kühner has a rapidly expanding cap which becomes plano-convex or depressed at maturity; it also lacks a ring-zone, but the stem in this species is finely hairy because of the presence of numerous pin-shaped cells which can be seen only with the aid of a lens. The gills are broadly adnate.

Illustrations: G. paludosa--LH 175.

(b) Alder-carrs

~Naucoria escharoides~ (Fries) Kummer

Cap: width 12-30 mm. Stem: width 1-3 mm; length 25-45 mm.

Description: Plate 76.

Cap: pale yellowish ochre, but becoming darker ochraceous with age, scurfy, convex but then flattened, or with its edge upturned; the margin is slightly striate when moist.

Stem: slender, pale to dirty yellowish ochre but darker brown at base, slightly fibrillose, particularly at first because of filaments from a veil, but these are soon lost.

Gills: pale tan to brownish ochre with a paler, floccose margin, adnate and crowded.

Flesh: yellowish ochre but lacking a distinct smell.

Spore-print: clay-colour.

Spores: medium sized, almond-shaped, pale brown under the microscope, warted and 10-11 × 5-6 µm in size.

Marginal cystidia: swollen below, but drawn out into a hair-like apex.

Facial cystidia: absent.

General Information: Although this is a common species growing in damp places under alder it is difficult except with an expert eye to separate it from several closely related species which are also found in similar places. At present it is not known whether these fungi are favoured by the water-logged base-rich, reducing soils found nowhere else except under alder, or if they have a special relationship with the tree. There is ample evidence that soil conditions in alder woods are rather different from those found in other woodlands, but whatever the reason Naucoria escharoides is only found under alder--in fact this species has been placed in the genus Alnicola because of this character--cola meaning inhabitant and Alnus the tree of that name. Willow-carrs have not been as extensively studied as alder-carrs but there is evidence that a store of mycological information is still to be obtained from these places. Several species of Naucoria have been described from only willow-carrs, while others are to be found under both alder and willows; about eight species are known to grow under alder. The word escharoides means scab-like and refers to the cap which when freshly collected is minutely scaly and appears scabby.

Illustrations: LH 163; WD 67¹.

(iv) Fungi of beds of herbaceous plants

Beds of herbaceous plants provide protection for many small agarics and collecting can be conducted in these situations from spring to early winter. The buffered environments under the herbs is humid and relatively still, and this allows the development of the small often delicate fruit-bodies of certain species to continue unimpeded. Nettle-beds or mixtures of nettle and dog’s mercury have very rich floras under the shelter of their leaves and stems, either on the bare soil or plant debris.

On herbaceous stems

~Coprinus urticicola~ (Berkeley & Broome) Buller

Cap: width 4-7 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 10-15 mm.

Description: Plate 76.

Cap: white then greyish, globose at first and then expanding to become plane with upturned margin covered, at first, with scales from a veil which at the centre are white-tipped with ochre.

Stem: white and slightly downy.

Spore-print: brownish black.

Spores: elliptic-ovoid, only slightly compressed with distinct germ-pore, dark brown under the microscope and 6-8 × 5 µm in size.