Tricholomopsis rutilans (Schaeff.) Singer

Cooper, Jerry A. & Park, Duckchul, 2016, The fungal genus Tricholomopsis (Agaricales) in New Zealand, including Tricholomopsis scabra sp. nov., Phytotaxa 288 (1), pp. 69-76 : 74-75

Tricholomopsis rutilans (Schaeff.) Singer

The following description of European material after T. Boekhout & M.E. Noordeloos in Bas at al. 1999 and material enumerated in Table 1.

Macro-morphology:―Pileus 20–160 mm, convex, expanding applanate, usually with low, broad umbo and undulating marginal zone when old, purplish-reddish-brown at centre, golden yellow towards margin, covered with purplish-reddish fibrils or minute squamules, dry. Lamellae crowded, adnate or sinuate, pale yellow to yellow, brownish edge. Stipe 25–85 × 3–25 mm, cylindrical or clavate, usually connate, solid finally fistulose, pale yellow at apex, golden yellow below, with purplish-red fibrillose covering. Context yellow-white in pileus and apex of stipe, pale golden yellow in basal part of stipe. Smell rather weak, pleasant. Taste mild or somewhat astringent. Spore print white. Solitary or caespitose on freshly cut or decayed wood of conifers, causing white rot.

Micro-morphology:―Spores broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid with hilar appendage, hyaline, thin-walled, neither amyloid nor dextrinoid, length 6.5 μm (σ = 0.28) × 4.9 μm (σ = 0.26), Q = 1.32 (σ = 0.06), n = 21. Basidia 35–45 × 6.0–8.0 μm, narrowly clavate, 4-spored. Lamella edge sterile. Cheilocystidia 40–120 × 12–25 μm, clavate, often with brown, intracellular pigment. Pleurocystidia absent or scarce. Pileipellis a cutis with transitions to a trichoderm, made up of clavate terminal elements, 5.0–15 μm wide. Pigment purplish-brown, intracelluar in pileipellis and stipitipellis. Stipitipellis a cutis with transitions to a trichoderm, made up of inflated hyphae, 4.0–16 μm wide. Caulocystidia abundant, 20–80 × 4.0 μm, with brown, intracellular pigment. Clamp-connections present in all tissues.

Habitat and distribution:―Apparently widespread throughout Europe, North Africa, and North America.

Comments:— T. rutilans may be present in New Zealand conifer plantations. It can be distinguished from T. scabra and T. ornaticeps by its plum colours in combination with elliptical spores and voluminous cystidia.