Deconica inquilina
No common name
Hymenogastraceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
No common name
Hymenogastraceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) a hygrophanous, reddish brown to yellowish brown, viscid, peelable, striate cap that is sometimes scaly, 2) adnate to slightly decurrent gills that are pallid then reddish-brown to purplish gray-brown with the edges colored as the faces, 3) a whitish to pale grayish to reddish brown stem with white to brown fibrils toward the base, 4) growth most often from bases of matted rotting grass, 5) a purplish brown spore deposit, and 6) microscopic characters.
Gills:
adnate to subdecurrent [somewhat decurrent]; "reddish brown to purplish gray-brown", edges colored as faces, (Stamets), broadly adnate to subdecurrent; reddish brown to grayish violet brownish or grayish brown, edges colored as faces or whitish, (Guzman)
Stem:
2-4cm x 0.15-0.2cm, equal, flexuous [wavy], hollow; "whitish to reddish brown, adorned with whitish to brown fibrils toward the base, which often has whitish mycelium attached", (Stamets), 2-4cm x 0.15-0.2cm, flexuous, hollow; whitish or pale grayish to reddish brown, "slightly covered by whitish to brownish fibrils toward the base, with white mycelial felt at the base", (Guzman)
Veil:
partial veil cortinate, soon disappearing (Stamets), veil rudimentary as white cortina soon evanescent (Guzman)
Odor:
not distinctive (Guzman)
Taste:
not distinctive (Guzman)
Microscopic spores:
spores 7-8.8(10) x 4.5-6.6 microns, subrhomboid [more or less rhomboid] to subelliptic [more or less elliptic] in face view, subelliptic in side view, [presumably smooth]; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia (15)18-38 x 5-8 microns, lageniform to sublageniform, with a long neck 2.5-3.8 microns wide, (Stamets), spores (6.6)7.7-8.8(10) x 4.5-5.5(6.6) x 3.8-4.4 microns, very rarely up to 11 microns, subrhomboid or subelliptic in face view, subelliptic in side view, with thin or somewhat thick (0.5 microns) walls, brownish yellow, with broad flat germ pore up to 1.5 microns wide; basidia 4-spored, 12-30 x 5.5-9 microns, very rarely 1- or 2-spored, subventricose, colorless; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia abundant, (15)18-38 x 5-8 microns, colorless, lageniform, sublageniform or subfiliform, with a long neck 2.5-3.8 microns wide, sometimes with a colorless viscous drop at apex, 5-15 microns in diameter; clamp connections present, (Guzman)
Spore deposit:
purplish brown (Stamets), "violet brown dark to blackish violet", (Guzman), mid-brown (Buczacki)
Notes:
It occurs at least in WA, OR, CA, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Sweden, and Switzerland, (Stamets). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia and a collection from WY at the University of Washington.
EDIBILITY
not known to be active as hallucinogen (Stamets)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Deconica crobula has small spores and larger cheilocystidia and sometimes forms a subannulus in the young stages, according to Guzman(1): classically D. crobula fruits on rotten wood and D. inquilina on grass stems, but Guzman holds that the habitat is the same for both species. See also SIMILAR section of Psilocybe atrobrunnea and Deconica montana.Habitat
single to gregarious, often grows from bases of matted rotting grass in fall and is difficult to harvest without stem breaking or clump of grass being pulled up, occasionally on rotting twigs or in rich soils, (Stamets), single or gregarious, rarely cespitose [in tufts], "on grass stems, rotten twigs, sticks or rotten wood", rarely on old dung or rich soil, in open coniferous forests with grasses, on dead ferns, on sawdust, (Guzman), summer to fall (Buczacki)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Psilocybe inquilina (Fr.) Bres. Ico.