Part 73

(a) Moorland fungi

~Marasmius androsaceus~ (Fries) Fries

Horse-hair toadstool

Cap: width 5-15 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 30-60 mm.

Description: Plate 77.

Cap: whitish to pale smoke-brown with a distinct wine-coloured tinge, membranous, flattened, or umbilicate and radially wrinkled.

Stem: thread-like, black or very dark brown, horny and usually springing from a black horse-hair-like mycelium.

Gills: whitish or dirty flesh-colour, adnate and crowded.

Flesh: white in the pileus and black in the stem.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium-sized, pip-shaped, not blueing in solutions containing iodine and measuring 7-9 × 3-4 µm in size.

Marginal cystidia: oval or ellipsoid, covered on the upper half with small pimple-like projections.

Facial cystidia: absent.

General Information: This fungus is common in troops from late summer until winter on dead and dying heather. It is also found in woods on leaves and twigs, particularly in plantations on conifer needles. It is easily recognised by the dark horse-hair-like stem which becomes bent and twisted on drying and the small, pinkish flesh-coloured cap. The word androsaceus means, and refers to, the stem which resembles the tough and wiry fronds of some of the red algae, such as Ahnfeldtia which is found around our sea-shores.

Illustrations: LH 115; NB 47¹; WD 24⁴.

~Omphalina ericetorum~ (Fries) M. Lange

Cap: width 5-20 mm. Stem: width 2 mm; length 10-20 mm.

Description:

Cap: variable in colour, straw-colour, cream-colour, bistre or grey, convex then flat or slightly depressed, radially grooved to the centre when moist; the margin is scalloped.

Stem: slender, similarly coloured to the cap, except for a brownish wine-coloured zone at the very apex, thickened upwards and smooth with a white and woolly base.

Gills: adnate to decurrent, white then cream-colour or yellowish, triangular in shape, very distant and often connected by veins.

Flesh: pale cream-colour.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, broadly ellipsoid, or pip-shaped, not becoming bluish grey in solutions of iodine, 8-10 × 5 µm in size.

Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.

General Information: This fungus is common and often in large troops on peaty ground in woods as well as in moorland and mountain regions. In mountains O. ericetorum must be carefully distinguished from some of the truly mountain species of Omphalina dealt with on p. 236. O. wynniae (Berkeley & Broome) P. D. Orton is similar but pale lemon-yellow and is found on stumps of conifers. The word ericetorum refers to the habit of growing on heaths--Erica is the Latin name for heath. In many books this same fungus is called O. umbellifera which reflects the shape of the cap--umbrella shaped.

Illustrations: Hvass 116; LH 99; NB 85⁷; WD 29⁹.

~Entoloma helodes~ (Fries) Kummer