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Species Information
Summary: Laccaria laccata is distinguished by the overall pinkish to orangish or dull cinnamon color; thick, well-spaced gills; a tough or fibrous stem that is colored as cap or darker; and a white spore deposit. |The name Laccaria laccata group is used in the sense of Siegel(2) who explains (with the Latin name italicized), "The name L. laccata is applied to a few difficult-to-distinguish, poorly understood, and probably undescribed species in California." |This is not to be confused with Laccaria laccata complex of Mueller(3), who includes Laccaria laccata (var. laccata and var. pallidifolia), L. longipes, L. montana, L. ohiensis (?= L. tetraspora), and L. striatula. |The usual variety in the Pacific Northwest has been considered on morphological grounds to be var. pallidifolia. |It is unclear how common Laccaria laccata is in the Pacific Northwest, due to difficulties in distinguishing it from other species. |This group will need revision when molecular results are more clear (see Wilson, A.W.(2) for some of the difficulties).
Distribution includes BC, WA, OR, and ID. Mueller examined collections (some of which could possibly be Laccaria ohiensis) from BC, WA, OR, ID, NB, NL, NS, ON, AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WV, WI, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Cripps(2) reported it from MT. Osmundson(1) mention reports from AK, Greenland, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Russia, Svalbard, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Cap: 1.5-6cm across, convex becoming flat "to centrally depressed or sometimes even with a hole in the center", the margin often uplifted when old, margin often wavy or irregularly lobed when old; flesh-colored to orangish, brownish cinnamon, reddish tan, or pinkish brown when moist, much paler as it dries; not viscid, often minutely scaly, (Arora), 1-4.5(6)cm across, obtuse to convex, often becoming flat or uplifted, often depressed, margin incurved to decurved [downcurved], entire to undulate [wavy]; hygrophanous, orange brown becoming buff-color, disc occasionally darker orange-brown or red-brown; "finely fibrillose to fibrillose-scaly, infrequently slightly scaly", striate to not striate, occasionally strongly striate to plicate-striate [pleated-striate], (Mueller)
Flesh: thin; tinged cap color, (Arora), "thin, tapering quickly to margin", colored as cap surface, in stem colored as in cap, (Mueller)
Gills: typically adnate to slightly decurrent, well-spaced, thick, somewhat waxy; pale pinkish to flesh-colored or reddish tan, (Arora), "sinuate, adnate or arcuate, rarely decurrent, close to distant, narrow to broad, relatively thin to thick"; pinkish flesh-color, some becoming slightly vinaceous when old, (Mueller)
Stem: 2-10cm x 0.3-1cm, more or less equal, usually rather slender, often somewhat twisted or compressed; same color as moist cap or darker (reddish brown), "downy mycelium at base white (if present)" (Arora), (1.2)2-6.5(10.6)cm x 0.2-0.4(0.8)cm, equal, subclavate [somewhat club-shaped] or tapering towards base, occasionally slightly bulbous, stem stuffed becoming hollow; colored as cap; "dry, fibrillose, not striate to finely longitudinally striate, rarely with pronounced striations", basal mycelium sparse to copious, always white, (Mueller)
Odor: mild or sometimes radish-like, (Arora)
Taste: slight (Phillips)
Microscopic spores: spores (6.4)7.4-10(13) x (6)7-10(11.5) microns excluding ornamentation, round to nearly round, occasionally broadly elliptic, echinulate, echinulae (0.5)1-2 microns long, 1 micron wide at base, relatively scarce to crowded, contents occasionally uniguttulate or biguttulate [with 1 or 2 droplets], hilar appendix 1.3-2.2 microns long, prominent, truncate, plage present; basidia 4-spored, 27.5-55 x 7.5-13.5(16.5) microns, clavate, colorless, sterigmata up to 7 microns long; cheilocystidia absent or scattered to abundant, 23-55 x 2-7.5 microns, filamentous to subclavate, occasionally strangulate, thin-walled, colorless, (Mueller), spores 7-10 x 6-9 microns, round or nearly round, spiny, inamyloid, (Arora)
Spore deposit: white (Arora, Mueller)
Habitat / Range
scattered or in groups or troops "in woods or near trees, especially in poor or sandy soil or in boggy areas", (Arora), single to gregarious, occasionally cespitose [in tufts], "associated with Pinaceae, Fagaceae and Betulaceae", (Mueller), summer, fall, winter, (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Laccaria bicolor has a lilac tone in the gills and basal mycelium although this lilac color fades in older specimens. This makes it difficult to identify either species unless young specimens are present in the collection. Laccaria montana has larger spores and an arctic to boreal distribution (Mueller). Laccaria proxima is more robust and strongly colored, with a cap that is more non-striate and slightly scaly or scaly, and with spores that are more elongate and finely echinulate, (Mueller). L. proxima has more fibrillose stem and scalier cap, but only told for certain by its broadly elliptical rather than round spores, (Arora). Laccaria pumila has 2-spored basidia that bear large spores, (Mueller). Laccaria nobilis has a larger, scaly cap, and a scaly to almost reticulate stem.
