Lepiota xanthophylla

[ Basidiomycota > Agaricales > Agaricaceae > Lepiota . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

This is a distinctive lepiotoid mushroom with yellow gills and small brown scales on its yellowish cap. It is a woodland European species, and its distribution in North America is uncertain, although it may be limited to urban settings in the southeastern United States, where it appears to have been introduced with woodchips.

Lepiota xanthophylla is very similar to Lepiota elaiophylla, but the latter species has olive shades in its fresh cap and gills, brownish gills when dried for the herbarium, and is known only from greenhouses in Europe. The two species also differ microscopically, in the structure of the pileipellis; Lepiota xanthophylla has a layer of club-shaped, shorter cells along with longer, skinnier cells; Lepiota elaiophylla has only the long, skinny cells.

Thanks to Andy Methven for facilitating study of Lepiota xanthophylla.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously outdoors, in hardwoods forests or in woodchips; fall; originally described from England, and well documented in continental Europe and Japan; in North America apparently restricted to the southeastern United States. The illustrated and described collection is from Georgia.

Cap: 2–3 cm across; convex to broadly conic-convex; dry; fibrillose centrally, with tiny fibrillose scales elsewhere; ground color dull yellowish; scales and fibrils brown; margin with a few hanging partial veil remnants.

Gills: Free from the stem; close or nearly distant; light yellow; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 3–3.5 cm long; 3–4 mm thick; equal; dry; bald near the apex, but fibrillose-scaly overall; with a quickly collapsing, flimsy whitish ring; brownish; solid.

Flesh: Yellowish; not changing when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Dried Specimens: Gills of dried specimens are pale yellow.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6–7.5 x 3–4.5 µ; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; dextrinoid. Basidia about 25 x 5 µm; cylindric; 4-sterigmate. Cheilocystidia in a sterile band; 50–60 x 10–20; µ; widely cylindric to subutriform, sublageniform, or subclavate; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia not found. Pileipellis a trichoderm; terminal elements of two types: 1) 50–100 x 5–7.5 µm, cylindric with rounded apices, smooth, hyaline to brown in KOH; 2) 30–50 x 5–10 µm, subclavate to clavate, smooth, hyaline in KOH. Clamp connections present.

REFERENCES: P. D. Orton, 1960. (Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1995; Vellinga & Huijser, 1997; Akers & Sundberg, 1998; Vellinga, 2001h; Vellinga, 2003b; Lange, 2018.) Herb. Kuo 09292001 (portion of ASM 12479).

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Spores

Cheilocystidia

Pileipellis; clavate cells indicated

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2020, October). Lepiota xanthophylla. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lepiota_xanthophylla.html