Lachnella alboviolascens (Alb. & Schwein.) Fr.
no common name
Niaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
no common name
Niaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) minute basidiomycete fruiting bodies that are grayish on spore-bearing surface, with whitish marginal hairs and exterior, 2) absent stem, 3) growth on woody herbaceous stems, and on bark and branches of trees and shrubs, and 4) microscopic characters including basidia. In the Cooke and Donk description below, the color of fresh specimens is not clearly separated from the color of dried ones.
Microscopic:
spores 12.5-15 x 10-11 microns, broadly and irregularly elliptic, sometimes flattened on one side, smooth, inamyloid; cystidia absent; hyphal system monomitic; outer hairs "white above, brownish toward base, thick walled, narrowly cylindrical, encrusted, dextrinoid", (Buczacki), spores (10)13.5-15(17) x (6.5)9-11 microns, elliptic, nearly round, or tear-shaped, usually flattened on one side, sometimes pointed at distal end, smooth, colorless; basidia 33-70 x 10-15 microns, 4-spored, sterigmata up to 10 microns long; surface hairs 100-300 x 3-10 microns, densely and finely granule encrusted, tapered, thick-walled, with a very narrow lumen, (Cooke), spores 13.5-15.25 x 9-12 microns, broad-obovoid, adaxially somewhat flattened, with distinct, blunt, eccentric apiculus, contents granular; basidia 2-4-spored, 60-75 x 12-16 microns; hairs about 200 x 5-6 microns, (Donk)
Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)
Notes:
Lachnella alboviolascens is found at least in BC, WA, ID, and also ON, AZ, CA, DE, MA, MD, ME, MO, OH, PA, SC, VA, and WI, (Ginns), and the British Isles, Denmark, France, Germany, South Africa, and New Zealand, (Redhead).
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Donk writes of Lachnella villosa, "The fruit-body is on an average much smaller and more tender than in Lachnella alboviolascens, and closes less perfectly to a globular body. The latter species has a more fleshy disc which almost invariably (at least in not too proliferous fruit-bodies) turns dark. The presence of numerous ''basidioles'' [in L. villosa] may be another important difference. Finally, L. villosa prefers herbaceous or only slightly woody substrata, while L. alboviolascens grows almost invariably on woody substrata (though these may be very thin branches).", (Donk(1), with Latin names in italics), L. villosa usually occurs on herbaceous stems and has a whiter spore-bearing surface, slightly smaller spores, and spear-shaped cystidia, (Buczacki), L. villosa has thinner hymenium.Habitat
bark and branches of trees and shrubs, woody herbaceous stems, litter and duff; associated with a white rot, (Ginns), in densely tufted groups; on dead wood, twigs and branches of hardwood trees and shrubs, "herbaceous stems and other plant debris, often on gorse and broom"; spring to fall, (Buczacki for British Isles), densely gregarious to scattered on woody herbaceous stems of plants and on the bark and branches of trees and shrubs, (Cooke)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Cyphella alboviolascens (Alb. & Schwein.) P. Karst
Cyphella pezizoides Zopf
Oligoporus placenta (Fr.) Gilb. & Ryvarden
Postia placenta (Fr.) M.J. Larsen & Lombard