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Species Information
Summary: Section Staurospori. Nolanea staurospora is easily recognized in the field by a dark brown, translucent-striate cap with dark gray brown fibrils in the center, whitish to slightly brownish gills, a brownish orange, striate stem that becomes dark brown when old (var. staurospora) or dark brown in places with bruising (var. incrustata), and a mild to slightly farinaceous odor. Microscopically distinctive are its prismatic to star-shaped spores like 4-pronged jumping jacks, and absent clamp connections. N. staurospora var. incrustata is recognized by a stem that bruises dark brown in places and microscopically by minutely incrusting as well as intracellular pigments, (Largent(1)). The description is derived from Largent(1). Nolanea staurospora var. incrustata is uncommon in the western United States.
Material was examined from WA, OR, ID, and CA, (Largent). It has been reported also from BC (Kroeger(3)).
Gills: narrowly adnate to adnexed, narrow becoming broad, 0.3-0.7cm broad; at first white to "tilleul-buff" [whitish], becoming pinkish, edges concolorous but occasionally faintly reddish brown when bruised; edges even
Stem: 4-11cm x 0.2-0.45cm at top, equal or widening downward (0.2-0.7cm at base), round in cross-section but occasionally twisted and/or flattened and grooved, stuffed then hollow; "silvery white to pale orange to orange-white" becoming light brown to dark yellowish brown from the base upward when handled or bruised; bald "with silvery, often agglutinated, superficial fibrils" which may turn brown and give striate appearance
Veil: [absent]
Odor: mild cucumber to farinaceous
Taste: mild cucumber to farinaceous
Microscopic spores: spores 7.7-12.6 x 6.2-10.4 microns, 4-5 sided, distinctly angular, prismatic to star-shaped (in the shape of a 4-pronged jumping jack), [smooth, inamyloid]; basidia 4-spored, 26.7-40.5 x 9.8-12.9 microns, small and granular; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia absent; pigmentation cytoplasmic and vacuolar in cap cuticle at disc, also, away from disc minutely incrusting external walls on some of slender hyphae of cap trama; clamp connections absent in all tissues
Spore deposit: [presumably pinkish brown]
Habitat / Range
single to at most scattered with 1-4 fruitbodies per mycelium; under conifers, in grass, on mossy logs, under salal, devil''s club, ferns, Acer circinatum (Vine Maple), Alnus rubra (Red Alder), Thuja plicata (Western Red-cedar), Tsuga mertensiana (Mountain Hemlock), July to November, in California at other times of year, (Largent), summer, fall
Similar Species
Nolanea staurospora var. staurospora f. discoloripes has abundant gregarious fruiting bodies (10 or more from a mycelium as opposed to 1-4 from var. incrustata), a stem that does not bruise dark brown but becomes entirely dark brown when old, and lacks incrusting pigment, (Largent). See also SIMILAR section of Nolanea pseudostrictior and Nolanea pusillipapillata.
