Clitocybula abundans

[Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Tricholomataceae > Clitocybula...]

by Michael Kuo

Clitocybula abundans, as its species name suggests, frequently fruits in large numbers. Its little caps usually develop a shallow depression or "belly button" in the center, and are finely streaked with innate radial fibers. It features a white spore print, and gills that are broadly attached to the stem. It is found primarily on the wood of conifers--but also on the wood of birch and other hardwoods in northern and montane areas.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing in dense clusters on the deadwood of conifers and hardwoods (especially birch); summer and fall (or over winter in warm climates); fairly widely distributed in North America, but more common in northern and montane areas.

Cap: 1-4 cm; convex, becoming planoconvex to flat, with a central depression or "belly button"; smooth, but with innate, radiating fibers; moist when fresh; the margin not lined, but often splitting in age; pale grayish brown centrally, grayish buff toward the margin.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem or just beginning to run down it; close; sometimes with cross-veins; white.

Stem: 2-6 cm long; up to 4 mm thick; more or less equal; bald, or silky near the apex; whitish; hollowing.

Flesh: Insubstantial; watery whitish.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Details: Spores 4.5-6.5 x 3.5-5 µ; ellipsoid; smooth; amyloid. Cheilocystidia clavate to irregular and oblique; 30-50 x 7-20 µ. Pileipellis a cutis of elements 2-5 µ wide, with cylindric to clavate pileocystidia in the area over the disc. Clamp connections present.

REFERENCES: (Peck, 1878) Singer, 1954. (Saccardo, 1887; Kauffman, 1918; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1991; Barron, 1999; Barrasa et al., 2006; Miller & Miller, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 09130803.

Similar species include Clitocybula oculus, with a slightly darker cap, a hardwoods-only habitat, and a finely scaly stem; and Clitocybula familia, with a convex cap that does not usually develop a belly button, and smaller, round spores measuring 3.5-5 µ.

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2010, May). Clitocybula abundans. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/clitocybula_abundans.html