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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
~ Boletaceae, Gyrodontaceae p.p.
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; ephemeral; solitary; differentiated into a stipe and pileus with the hymenium underneath the latter (dry boletoids, distinguished by the stipe becoming cavernous); medium sized to large; in Gyroporus cyanescens, 5–10 cm across. The mature pileus convex. The top of the pileus in G. cyanescens, yellowish-brown and light brown. The fruit-bodies reacting rapidly with a marked colour change when cut or bruised, or showing no conspicuous colour reaction to cutting or bruising; damaged flesh of Gyroporus cyanescens turning blue. The stipe with neither ring nor volva; developing cavities at maturity. The hymenium porose. The hymenial layer readily separable from the supporting flesh. The hymenium not thickening. The hymenophore free to adnexed. The hymenophoral trama bilateral. The basidia ‘unmodified’. The basidiospores short, subglobose to ellipsoid, lacking a sub-hilar depression; ballistosporic; brown; smooth, or ornamented (smooth or ridged?).
The hyphae with clamp connections (Gyrodon), or without clamp connections. The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The hyphae monomitic. The generative hyphae inflated. Spaerocysts not occurring among the context hyphae.
Chemical reactions. Not yielding prenylated phenols and quinones.
Ecology. Saprophytic. The fruit-bodies borne on the ground.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. 3 species in Britain; Gyroporus, Rubinoboletus.
World representation. 20 species; genera 2. “Widespread”.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Boletales.
Comments. G. cyanescens edible (and good).
Illustrations. • Gyroporus cyanescens (LH). GYROPORACEAE. Gyroporus cyanescens: fruit body, whole and (at right) cut vertically to show the ventricose stipe and the blueing of the damaged flesh. Sunesen & Dahlstrøm, in Lange & Hora (1965).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2008 onwards. The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
