Identification Of The Larger Fungi - free ebook by Roy Watling

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Identification Of The Larger Fungi

Roy Watling

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IDENTIFICATION OF THE LARGER FUNGI

IDENTIFICATION OF THE LARGER FUNGI

DEDICATION To my parents who encouraged my interests in mushrooms and toadstools and my wife who, later, was sympathetic to my studies and assisted in the production of the manuscript. Hulton Group Keys IDENTIFICATION OF THE LARGER FUNGI by ROY WATLING, B.Sc., Ph.D., M.I.Biol. Principal Scientific Officer, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh Editor of series : Antony R. Kenney, M.A., B.Sc. © 1973 R. Watling A. R. Kenney ISBN 0 7175 0595 2 First published 1973 by Hulton Educational Publications Ltd.,

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PREFACE

PREFACE

This is one of a series of books intended to introduce field-biology to students, particularly the sixth form and early university student. The present work is ecologically biased in order to emphasise a rather neglected aspect of the higher fungi. Few books on fungi have ever been designed for students. This book is aimed primarily at this level, but if the interested amateur is assisted and encouraged by this same text my hopes will have been doubly achieved. Many amateurs interested in higher

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Where to look

Where to look

Fungi can be found in most situations which are damp at some time of the year. Searching for fungi can begin as soon as the spring days become warm, although even in the colder periods of winter several finds can be made. In summer it gets very dry and this necessitates collecting in damper areas, such as marshes, alder-carrs, swamps and moorland bogs. After a heavy storm in summer, on the edges of paths and roadsides, woodland banks, in clearings in woods and in gardens, fungi can be collected

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Collecting

Collecting

The collecting of larger fungi should not be considered a haphazard pursuit; careless collecting often results in many frustrating hours being spent on the identification of inadequate material, which is also not suitable after for preservation as reference material. A few good specimens are infinitely better than several poor ones; one is always tempted to collect too much and then collections are inevitably discarded. Always try to select specimens showing all the possible stages of developmen

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Examination

Examination

Once home always aim at examining the specimens methodically. The first necessity is to determine whether the fungus, which has been collected, has its spores borne inside a specialised reproductive cell (ascus) i.e. Ascomycete, or on a reproductive cell (basidium) i.e. Basidiomycete. By taking a small piece of the spore-bearing tissue, mounting in water, gently tapping it and examining under a low power of the microscope this can be easily ascertained. The tapping out is best done with the clea

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Microscopic examination

Microscopic examination

When one is more experienced with fungi it will be found necessary to carry out many microscopic observations, but when commencing the study it is necessary only to have an ordinary microscope; a calibrated eyepiece-micrometer is an advantage as is an oil-immersion lens. An examination of the spores is always necessary; the examination of features such as the sterile cells on the gill and stem, etc., varies with the fungus under observation. Spores should if at all possible be taken from a spore

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(i) Agarics of woodlands and copses

(i) Agarics of woodlands and copses

Cap : width 45-150 mm. Stem : length 70-200 mm; width 20-30 mm. Description : Plate 1 . Cap: convex and becoming only slightly expanded at maturity, pale brown, tan or buff, soft, surface dry, but in wet weather becoming quite tacky, smooth or streaky-wrinkled and cap-margin not overhanging the tubes. Stem: white, buff or greyish, roughened by scurfy scales which are minute, pale and arranged in irregular lines at the stem-apex, and enlarged and dark brown to blackish towards the base. Tubes: de

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(ii) Agarics of Pastures and Meadows

(ii) Agarics of Pastures and Meadows

Cap : width 20-80 mm. Stem : width 5-12 mm; length 30-70 mm. Description : Cap: convex then expanding to become plano-convex with a broad low umbo, tan, pale russet or even yellowish buff throughout or slightly darker at the centre. Stem: gradually thickened upwards, similarly coloured to the cap or paler if the cap is dark russet. Gills: pale buff, deeply decurrent and often connected up at their bases by veins. Flesh: buff or pale tan, thick and soft in the cap, slightly fibrous in the stem. S

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Key to major genera

Key to major genera

A group of fungi which includes the bracket fungi, hedgehog fungi, fairy-clubs and their relatives; in the majority of species the margin continues to grow through the favourable part of the season and so often envelopes leaves, grass, etc....

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(i) Pored and toothed fungi

(i) Pored and toothed fungi

Cap : 100-300 mm. Stem : width 25-50 mm; length 25-75 mm. Description : Cap: fan-shaped or semicircular, spreading horizontally with age, ochre-yellow or straw-coloured with dark brown, flattened scales in concentric zones which are much more dense at the centre. Stem: short, stout, white at apex and netted with pale creamy buff about middle, but dark brown or black towards the base and attached to the side of the cap. Tubes: whitish to yellowish and decurrent with large, angular, irregularly fr

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(ii) Chanterelles and relatives

(ii) Chanterelles and relatives

Cap : 30-100 mm. Stem : width 15-25 mm; length 30-70 mm. Description : Cap: convex then flattened, irregularly wavy, more or less top-shaped, depressed and smooth or slightly roughened at centre, egg-yellow or lemon-chrome with flush of orange and with the margin incurved at first. Stem: short, stout, tapered downwards, fleshy and similarly coloured to the cap. Gills: replaced by irregularly branched yellow folds which may form a network near the margin and at the apex of the stem over which the

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(iii) Fairy-club fungi

(iii) Fairy-club fungi

Cap : absent. Fruit-body : length 50-100 mm; width 7-13 mm. Description : Fruit-body: club-shaped, simple with blunt apex or irregular blunt branches, white or dirty cream colour, often thickened upwards and marked with longitudinal wrinkles or grooves and the whole surface of the club bearing spores. Stem: absent or extremely short. Flesh: white. Spore-print: white. Spore: medium sized, broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, hyaline under the microscope and not turning bluish grey in iodine solutions

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(iv) Resupinate fungi

(iv) Resupinate fungi

When mycologists talk generally about ‘resupinates’ they are referring to a whole group of Basidiomycetes whose spore-bearing layer is exposed, the cap highly reduced or completely lacking, and the fungus adhering to the surface of the substrate which may be soil, wood, grasses, etc., at the point which would have been the cap of an agaric. Probably members of the group are the most commonly seen yet it is one of the most commonly ignored groups of fungi—by naturalists and mycologists alike; the

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Key to the major groups

Key to the major groups

The jelly fungi or Hymenomycetous heterobasidiae is a complex group of fungi and not only includes our common jelly fungi but many microscopic forms some of which are parasitic. The group is divided into three main divisions depending on the position of the cross-walls within the basidium, or whether the basidium is in the shape of a tuning-fork. They are probably not closely related one to another....

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Dacrymyces stillatus Nees ex Fries

Dacrymyces stillatus Nees ex Fries

Fruit-body : 3-6 mm. Description : Fruit-body: cushion or brain-like, often irregular, lacking any evidence of stem, yellow or orange, gelatinous, covered entirely by spore-bearing tissue. Spore-print: yellowish. Spores: long, cylindrical or oblong, and slightly curved and 12-15 × 5-6 µm in size; they characteristically have 2 to 4 cross-walls dividing the interior of the spore (see below). Cystidia: absent. Habitat &amp; Distribution : Common on all sorts of old wood, particularly on fence-

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Hirneola auricula-judae (St Amans) Berkeley Jew’s ear

Hirneola auricula-judae (St Amans) Berkeley Jew’s ear

Fruit-body : width 20-75 mm. Description : Fruit-body: cup or ear-shaped, red-brown or deep wine-colour, gelatinous with its upper surface, velvety and clothed in greyish or olivaceous hairs. Spore-bearing layer: reddish or purplish brown, smooth or veined and translucent. Spore-print: white. Spores: very long, hyaline under the microscope, oblong, curved and narrowed towards their base, 16-18 × 6-8 µm in size. Cystidia: absent. Habitat &amp; Distribution : On dead branches of all kinds and

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Auricularia mesenterica (S. F. Gray) Persoon

Auricularia mesenterica (S. F. Gray) Persoon

, ‘Tripe-fungus’, is bracket-shaped with a hairy upper surface and reddish purple or deep purple lower surface which when fresh has a greyish bloom due to the formation of the spores. There are several fungi in the group Auriculariales in Britain, but many of them are inconspicuous and are identified with difficulty except by the expert. Sebacina incrustans (Fries) Tulasne is a common more obvious example of the resupinate forms. It grows as a cream or ivory-coloured, soft fruit-body encrusting

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Exidia glandulosa (St Amans) Fries Witch’s butter

Exidia glandulosa (St Amans) Fries Witch’s butter

Fruit-body : width 15-50 mm. Description : Fruit-body: sessile or shortly stalked, blackish, variable in shape, rounded, flattened, disc-shaped or convolute, gelatinous with its under surface tomentose and free from the substrate. Fruiting surface: uppermost, wavy and folded, and with numerous wart-like projections. Spore-print: white. Spores: long, hyaline, cylindrical, sausage-shaped and 12-15 × 5 µm in size. Cystidia: absent. Habitat &amp; Distribution : Frequent in crowded groups on stum

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Key to some groups

Key to some groups

The Gasteromycetes is an unnatural group of predominantly saprophytic higher fungi many of which are extremely grotesque and strange in their morphology. Instead of the spores being formed asymmetrically on the basidium as is found in the agarics, the spores of members of this group are usually more or less symmetrically attached to their sterigmata or may even be seated directly (sessile) on the basidium. The whole group, even if unnatural, can, however, be regarded under one heading as a biolo

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Lycoperdon pyriforme Persoon Stump puff-ball

Lycoperdon pyriforme Persoon Stump puff-ball

Fruit-body : width 20-50 mm; height 40-75 mm. Description : Fruit-body: more or less pear-shaped, pale brownish often with a slight hump on the top, scurfy on the outside with tiny pointed granules which soon fall off or become rubbed off by abrasion, particularly after careless handling. Stem: consisting of rather small cells and connected at the base by long, white, branched cords of mycelium which permeate the substrate. Spore-mass: white at first then greenish yellow and finally olive-brown

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L. perlatum Persoon

L. perlatum Persoon

is also a common puff-ball; it is pestle-shaped or top-shaped, whitish or tan with minutely roughened, globose spores measuring 4 µm in diameter. The fruit-body is covered in a mixture of large and small, fragile spines which leave a network when rubbed off. It grows in woods and on heaths....

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L. foetidum Bonorden

L. foetidum Bonorden

is similar to L. perlatum , but the spines are umber or vandyke-brown; it also grows both in woods and upland pastures, particularly the latter. Illustrations : L. pyriforme —Hvass 316; LH 219; NB 155 3 ; WD 109 3 . L. perlatum —Hvass 315; LH 217; NB 155 2 ; WD 110 2 . Plate 62. Puff-balls Larger illustration...

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Langermannia gigantea (Persoon) Rostkovius Giant puff-ball

Langermannia gigantea (Persoon) Rostkovius Giant puff-ball

Fruit-body : diameter 300-450 mm (-1,050 mm). Description : Fruit-body: round or slightly flattened on the top, smooth or cracked into small scales, white but becoming flushed yellowish with age and finally olive-brown when old, frequently the outer layer dries and breaks away to expose the powdery spore-mass within. Stem: absent or only present as a small cone of tissue. Spore-mass: whitish, cream-coloured and finally olive-brown. Spores: small, brownish, minutely warted and spherical, 4-5 µm i

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Earth-stars and Earth-balls

Earth-stars and Earth-balls

The earth-stars, i.e. species of Geastrum , are closely related to the puff-balls, but differ in having two very distinct and separate enclosing walls, the outer one splitting at maturity to expose a ‘puff-ball’ within; an example of the genus is G. triplex Jungh, found in parks or under beech trees or G. rufescens Pers. ( illustrated ) in mixed woodland. The outer skin splits in different ways in different species: in some it splits like a star—hence the common name of Earth-star, in some the s

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Stinkhorns

Stinkhorns

Fruit-body : Egg: 30-60 mm in diameter—then Cap : 25-40 mm and Stem : width 18-25 mm; length 100-150 mm. Description : Fruit-body: commencing as a white, silky egg-like structure full of jelly in which is embedded a conical cap attached only at its apex to a cylindrical white, spongy, hollow stem. Cap: covered in a slimy mass of dark olive-coloured spores at maturity. Stem: cylindrical, rapidly elongating, white, spongy and hollow. Spore-mass: dark olive-green, smelling strongly, foetid. Spores:

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Birds nest fungi

Birds nest fungi

Fruit-body : diameter 8-12 mm. Description : Fruit-body: ochraceous brown or sand-colour, downy and then smooth, truncate, cup-shaped with the cup at first closed by a yellowish membrane which finally splits to expose a group of pale brown or dingy whitish, circular, lens-shaped ‘eggs’ (peridioles), scattered on a shiny pale ochraceous interior. Spores: medium-sized, in packets within ‘eggs’, ellipsoid, hyaline, smooth and 8-10 × 4-6 µm in size. Habitat &amp; Distribution : Common in crowded

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General Notes.

General Notes.

The Ascomycetes differ from all the other fungi so far dealt with in that the spores develop enclosed in a microscopic envelope or sac—called the ascus. Usually eight spores are produced in each ascus and they are often dispersed violently into the air. Elf-cups and morels are typical Ascomycetes, but the group also includes innumerable minute forms of the microscopic fungi, small discs, minute flask-like structures, some of which are parasitic on leaves and stems of higher plants. In number the

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(i) Fungi of dung and straw heaps

(i) Fungi of dung and straw heaps

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 soo

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(ii) Fungi of bonfire-sites

(ii) Fungi of bonfire-sites

Cap : width 20-50 mm. Stem : width 4-8 mm; length 25-60 mm. Description : Plate 73 . Cap: convex then flattened and slightly umbonate, smooth, very sticky at first, but becoming shiny when dry, orange-yellow to sand-colour; the margin is first incurved and ornamented with filaments from the veil, but these are soon lost. Stem: dirty yellow, darker towards the base, cylindric or narrowed downwards and covered in small fibrillose scales. Gills: clay-coloured then dull brown, adnate and crowded. Fl

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(iii) Fungi of bogs and marshes

(iii) Fungi of bogs and marshes

Cap : width 12-20 mm. Stem : width 3-5 mm; length 50-80 mm. Description : Plate 75 . Cap: bell-shaped but rapidly expanding to become plane, honey-yellow with a greyish green tint, slightly striate at the margin and also with a few remnants of a fibrillose veil when very young, but these are soon lost. Stem: slender, smooth, whitish at the apex and yellow-brown or honey-yellow below. Gills: adnate and distant, pale ochraceous honey-yellow then lilaceous grey and finally sepia. Flesh: yellowish i

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(iv) Fungi of beds of herbaceous plants

(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. Cap

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(v) Fungi of moss-cushions

(v) Fungi of moss-cushions

Many small species grow amongst moss cushions on tree trunks, tucked in crevices in walls or on the tops of old buildings. However, there is one genus of agarics, i.e. Galerina which is probably more typical than any other of such situations. There are many members of this genus whose small caps are found in the autumn pushing up through the moss plants. Plate 78 . Cap : width 4-6 mm. Stem : width 1 mm; length 20-40 mm. Description : Cap: hemispherical or bell-shaped, hygrophanous, orange-yellow

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(vi) Heath and mountain fungi

(vi) Heath and mountain fungi

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

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(vii) Sand-dune fungi

(vii) Sand-dune fungi

Cap : width 27-75 mm. Stem : width 4-10 mm; length 35-80 mm. Description : Cap: convex then expanded, usually broadly umbonate, pale or dirty ochraceous paler at the margin, reddish brown at the centre, smooth, radially fibrillose towards the margin and sometimes showing the remains of a pale greyish buff veil. Stem: equal with marginate or rounded bulb at the base, white or whitish, then becoming discoloured pinkish or brownish, powdered with white, at first, but finally silky. Gills: free or n

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(viii) Subterranean fungi

(viii) Subterranean fungi

The adaptive habit of growing completely submerged beneath the surface of the ground has developed in all the major groups of fungi. Thus the simplest form related to the common bread-mould have taken up the character just as certain relatives of the disc-fungi (discomycetes) and of the flask-fungi (pyrenomycetes). In the higher fungi in several foreign countries even agarics, polypores and stinkhorns have become hypogeous, but in this country we have a very depauparate flora composed of some tw

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(ix) Fungal parasites

(ix) Fungal parasites

Description : Plate 81 . Cap: bell-shaped then becoming expanded, silky dirty white, but gradually grey with a flush of lilac with age. Stem: slender, white and smooth except for the base. Gills: pallid but soon becoming brownish, adnate or adnate with tooth, thick and distant alternately long and short and contorted or united with age. Flesh: dark brown. Spore-print: buff. Spores: small, hyaline under the microscope, ovoid, 5-6 × 3-4 µm but usually replaced completely or in part by ovoid, smoot

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(i) Species list of specialised habitats

(i) Species list of specialised habitats

Although some fungi prefer one type of woodland more than another many fungi are less specialised and may be found in all kinds of woods. Indeed many fungi which we usually associate with a woodland fungus flora can also be commonly seen in pastures and gardens, e.g. Laccaria laccata (Fries) Cooke, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (Fries) Maire. It is useful to consider the fungi of different woodland types separately, but this in some cases is very difficult because some species are not exclusive; ind

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(ii) Glossary of technical terms

(ii) Glossary of technical terms

Specialised colours are placed in capitals Adnate (of the gills or tubes), broadly attached to the stem at least for one quarter of their length. See p. 267 . Adnexed (of the gills or tubes), narrowly attached to the stem by less than one quarter of their length. See p. 267 . Amygdaliform (of the spore), almond-shaped. Amyloid (of the spore-walls, spore-ornamentation or hyphal walls), greyish or bluish or blackish violet in solutions containing iodine. Apiculus (of the spore), the short peg-like

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(iii) Fairy rings

(iii) Fairy rings

Object : To assess the annual radial growth of fairy-rings and to correlate this with any obvious environmental change. Materials : Graph and tracing papers, tape-measures, note-book, pencil and rule, small pieces of cane about four inches long and coloured dye (e.g. Eosin solution, Janus Green). Method : Select a fairy-ring on the school cricket pitch or hockey pitch, school lawn, local golf course or park at a time when the fruit-bodies are first visible. Carefully mark the centre of the ring

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(iv) Development of the agaric fruit-body

(iv) Development of the agaric fruit-body

In the soil or substrate the hyphae of agarics frequently grow in close contact with each other, indeed the intertwining of such hyphae to form small knots is common in many fungi. In these intertwining hyphae, those close together divide and branch, later branching again to form a heap of tissue. The fruit-body develops from, or within, this knot and at its earliest stage is usually covered by loosely branched and irregularly arranged hyphae. To the unaided eye the primordium, for this is what

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(v) References

(v) References

Some references have already been given on p. 264 . Findlay, Hvass &amp; Hvass, Lange &amp; Hora, Nicholson &amp; Brightman, Wakefield and Dennis and Zeitlmayr. In addition to these the following texts are suggested: Henderson, D. M., Orton, P. D. &amp; Watling, R. (1969). British Fungus Flora: Agarics and Boleti: Introduction , H.M.S.O., Edinburgh. Hennig, E. (1958-60). Handbuch für Pilzfreunde , Jena (in German). Haas, H. (1969). The Young Specialist looks at Fungi , London. Pi

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