Leucogyrophana mollusca (Fr.) Pouzar
no common name
Hygrophoropsidaceae

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

Introduction to the Macrofungi

Photograph

© Bryan Kelly-McArthur     (Photo ID #86097)


Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Leucogyrophana mollusca
Click here to view the full interactive map and legend

Species Information

Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth (rarely bent outward to form a narrow cap) on wood and bark, but also leaves, needles, and soil, 2) color that is orange predominantly, 3) a merulioid surface with broad ridges, 4) a margin that is firmly attached, matted-tomentose, with white to orange, scattered hyphal strands, 5) spores that are broadly elliptic, smooth, dextrinoid, pale yellow to almost colorless, and cyanophilic, 6) cystidioles that are common, projecting, 2 microns wide, and clavate or with a finger-like projection at the apex, 7) a monomitic hyphal system: generative hyphae with clamp connections, some encrusted with crystals.
Microscopic:
SPORES 5.6-7.2(7.6) x (3.8)4-4.8(5.2) microns, broadly elliptic or occasionally slightly oboval, adaxially flattened, with a distinct broad, blunt apiculus, smooth, dextrinoid (but the reaction sometimes weak), pale yellow to almost colorless, cyanophilic, wall about 0.3 microns thick; BASIDIA 4-spored, (20)25-35(45) x (6.5)7-9(10) microns, clavate, sterigmata 4.4 microns long; CYSTIDIOLES common, projecting up to 40 microns, "clavate, in some specimens with the apex elongated" and finger-like; HYPHAE monomitic, generative hyphae, of context (2.5)4-7.5(9) microns wide, woven, distinct, colorless, thin-walled, with clamp connections, some hyphae "with segments heavily crystalline or granule incrusted"; "tramal hyphae in some specimens embedded in gelatinous matrix"; hyphal strands "scattered to numerous, when narrow (-15 microns) composed of hyphae of the same diameter, when broad they are composed of one or a few broad core hyphae which are protected and bound together by narrower hyphae", (Ginns(15)), SPORES 4.5-5.5 x 3-3.5 microns, elliptic, dextrinoid, cyanophilic, thick-walled; BASIDIA 4-spored, 15-25 x 4-5 microns, clavate, with basal clamp connection; CYSTIDIA none; HYPHAE monomitic, hyphae thin-walled, with clamp connections, in the subhymenium 2-3 microns wide, richly branched, in the subiculum 3-8 microns wide, straighter and sparsely branched, "as a rule with attached doublepyramidic crystals", (Eriksson)
Notes:
Leucogyrophana mollusca has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, NS, NT, ON, PQ, AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, IN, MA, ME, MI, MT, NH, NM, NY, PA, TN, and VT, (Ginns(5)). It occurs in Scandinavia including specifically Sweden, (Eriksson).

Habitat and Range

SIMILAR SPECIES
See also SIMILAR section of Leucogyrophana pulverulenta and Leucogyrophana romellii.
Habitat
on "Wood and bark, leaves, needles, sawdust, soil, discarded timbers, in buildings, greenhouses, and cellars, associated with a brown rot"; Abies (fir), Betula (birch), Castanea (chestnut), Fagus (beech), Larix (larch), Picea (spruce), Pinus (pine), Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen), Populus trichocarpa (Black Cottonwood), Pseudotsuga (Douglas-fir), Rhododendron, Thuja plicata (Western Red-cedar), Thuja occidentalis (Northern White-cedar), Tsuga (hemlock), Ulmus (elm), (Ginns), fall (Buczacki)