E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Callistosporium luteo-olivaceum
no common name
Catathelasmataceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi

© Adolf Ceska  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #19172)

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Distribution of Callistosporium luteo-olivaceum
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Species Information

Summary:
Callistosporium luteo-olivaceum has the stature of a Collybia (in the older sense that included Gymnopus and Rhodocollybia) and was originally in that genus. It is distinguished by an olive and yellow coloration and a tendency to grow on rotten wood. Redhead(23) provides a taxonomic review of this species. The description is derived from Arora except where noted. This taxon may represent more than one species. MycoBank, accessed October 21, 2018, placed Callistosporium in Catathelasmataceae, but the online Index Fungorum, accessed the same day, had it in Tricholomataceae (as well as keeping Catathelasma in Tricholomataceae but having Pseudolaccaria in Catathelasmataceae).

Collections were examined from BC, WA, ON, QC, FL, ME, NC, NY, TN, VA, Venezuela, Italy, and Switzerland, and it is also known from northern Africa, (Redhead). It was reported by Jake Hurlbert from OR.
Cap:
1.5-6.5cm across, convex or slightly umbonate becoming flat or shallowly depressed; dark olive to olive brown or olive yellow, often becoming yellower (yellow-brown to honey-colored) when old and developing dark reddish brown tones when dried; "not viscid, often minutely scurfy at first but becoming smooth", (Arora), yellow-brown to liver-brown, (Trudell)
Flesh:
thin; pallid or yellow or tinged cap color, (Arora)
Gills:
notched or adnexed or adnate, close; yellow to golden yellow, tending to redden when dried, (Arora), close, thin; yellow to ocher or olive-tinted, (Trudell)
Stem:
2.5-7cm x 0.3-1cm, "equal or slightly thicker at either end, often flattened"; colored like cap or slightly darker, tending to turn deep reddish brown from the base up as it dries; smooth to fibrillose or scurfy especially over lower part, sometimes streaked when old, (Arora), hollow; similar in color to cap, with yellow tomentum at base; fibrillose, (Trudell)
Odor:
mild to pungent or slightly fruity, (Arora)
Taste:
mild or slightly bitter, (Arora), both North American and European collections often reported as slightly bitter or styptic, (Redhead), farinaceous-bitter (Trudell)
Microscopic spores:
spores 4.5-6.5 x 3-4.5 microns, elliptic to nearly round, with hilar appendage, smooth, not amyloid but many of them stain wine-colored in KOH, (Arora), spore size varies up to at least the dimensions of the type of C. graminicolor Lennox measured by Redhead as 6.2-7 x 4-4.5 microns, and Redhead relates that Favre measured spores sizes for 4-, 2-, and 1-spored basidia as (respectively) 7-8(8.5) x 3.5 microns, 9-11 x 3.8 microns, and 12-15 x 4.5-4.8 microns, (Redhead), basidia 4-spored, noncarminophilous, 22-30 x 6-7.5 microns; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia generally present, inconspicuous, rarely exceeding basidia, 10-39 x 2.5-5 microns, colorless, clavate to filamentous, usually with contorted appearance, sometimes sparingly branched, (Lennox)
Spore deposit:
white (Arora)

Habitat / Range

single, scattered or in small groups or tufts on rotten wood (often buried), under conifers, (Arora), single, scattered, or in small clusters, on well-rotted, often mossy wood, preferring "conifer logs and stumps (often associated with the bark)"; spring through fall, (Trudell)

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Callistosporium luteofuscum Singer

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links


Genetic information (NCBI Taxonomy Database)
Taxonomic Information from the World Flora Online
Index Fungorium
Taxonomic reference: Lloydia 89: 117. 1946; = Callistosporium luteofuscum Singer; = Callistosporium elaeodes Bon; = Callistosporium xanthophyllum Bon; = Callistosporium favrei Singer; = Callistosporium graminicolor Lennox; = Callistosporium psilocybe Murrill & Singer in Singe

Additional Range and Status Information Links

Edibility

unknown (Arora)

Additional Photo Sources

Related Databases

Species References

Arora(1), Trudell(4)*, Redhead(23), Lennox(1), Siegel(2)*

References for the fungi

General References