Cystoderma jasonis (illustrated) is the current name for two taxa that were previously known as varieties of Cystoderma amianthinum (var. longisporum and var. sublongisporum). According to Harmaja (1979), Cystoderma jasonis has a darker brown cap and stem with slightly larger granules, a sometimes purple stem apex, and slightly larger spores (6-7.5 x 3-4.5 µ).
Description:
Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously, usually in moss under conifers; late summer and fall (over winter in California); widely distributed in northern and montane North America.
Cap: 2-5 cm; dry; convex, obtusely conic, or bell-shaped at first, becoming broadly convex, broadly bell-shaped, or nearly flat; frequently somewhat wrinkled in radial patterns (strikingly so in one version); covered with mealy granules; pale reddish brown to yellowish brown or yellowish.
Gills: Attached to the stem; close; whitish becoming pale yellowish.
Stem: 3-7 cm long; 3-8 mm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to apex; dry; pale and fairly smooth near the apex, but sheathed with granular material and colored like the cap below; the sheath terminating in a flimsy ring that often fragments or disappears.
Flesh: Whitish; thin.
Odor and Taste: Taste mild; odor usually pungent and unpleasant.
Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface rusty red.
Spore Print: White.
Microscopic Features: Spores 4-7 x 3-4 µ; elliptical; smooth; at least weakly amyloid. Cystidia absent. Pileipellis elements with rusty brown walls in KOH; chained together; inflated; subglobose.
REFERENCES: (Scopoli, 1772) Fayod, 1889. (Saccardo, 1887; Smith & Singer, 1945; Harmaja, 1979; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Arora, 1986; Lincoff, 1992; Barron, 1999; McNeil, 2006; Miller & Miller, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 09010607.
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