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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; ephemeral; gymnocarpic; in Laccaria differentiated into a stipe and pileus with the hymenium underneath the latter, or a globose or tuberiform gasterocarp (Hydnangium s. str. being gasteroid, the gleba sub-lamellate to loculate); small to medium sized; 1–6 cm across. The mature pileus convex to parasol-shaped. The fruit-bodies brightly pigmented, or not brightly pigmented. The top of the pileus yellowish-brown to reddish-brown (e.g., Laccaria laccata), or blue to lilac (L. amythestina). The stipe with neither ring nor volva. The hymenium borne on gills. The hymenophoral trama not bilateral. The basidia ‘unmodified’. The basidiospores subglobose; ballistosporic, or statismosporic; hyaline; ornamented (spinose).
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.
Ecology. Saprophytic. The fruit-bodies subterranean, or not subterranean; when epigeal, borne on the ground. Found in heathland, in coniferous woodland, in broad-leaved woodland, and in mixed woodland, in Sphagnum bogs (e.g., L. laccata, sometimes).
Representation in Britain and Ireland. About 20 species in Britain; Hydnangium, Laccaria.
World representation. 30 species; genera 4.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Agaricales.
Comments. At least Laccaria amethystina edible.
Illustrations. • Laccaria amythestina and Laccaria laccata (LH). HYDNANGIACEAE. 1, Laccaria amythestina; 2, Laccaria laccata. J.E. Lange, in Lange & Hora (1965). • Laccaria laccata, with Tricholomataceae and Marasmiaceae (Berkeley). HYDNANGIACEAE. 3, Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke. TRICHOLOMATACEAE. 1, Lepista saeva (Fr.) Orton; 2, Clitocybe infundibuliformis (Schaeff.) Fr.; 5, Collybia fusipes (Bull.) Quél.; 6, Crinipellis scabella (Alb. & Schwein.); 7, Collybia dryophila (Bull.) P. Kumm. MARASMIACEAE. 4, Xerula radicata (Relhan) Dörfelt.
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’.
