CA, Southern California, 20070928
Madison Heights, several mushrooms.
This is the sixth day after the 1.2" of rain we got on Saturday. Wow, mushrooms are still going strong. A little light misting-drizzle today, also.
Lepiota barssii []
S side of Fillmore between Oakland and Madison.
| | GEN | | medium mushroom, solit to small clumped in lawn |
| | ST | | 50x10-20mm, widening bel, straight to gracefully curved, hollow, smooth, white, thick cottony stubby intermediate ring |
| | CAP | | 50mm (young), convex/pillow, white, d brownish fibrillose-scurfy all over, K-, light pleasant earthy odor and flavor, veil remnants hanging from marg |
| | FLESH | | 12mm thick, firm, white, discoloring v sl brownish (esp near base of stem) |
| | GILL | | v free, white (young), close |
| | SPORE | | print whitish, clear, ellip, smooth, dry not clumped, 6-8x3-4um |
Could've sworn this was an
Agaricus, but it appears to be a
Lepiota instead. I wouldn't have called this a "gray" parasol. I can't find any info on this on the web. Wait, just discovered the description on mykoweb.com
matches perfectly.
Lepiota cepaestipes []
NW corner of Fillmore and Los Robles, in lawn between sidewalk and street, going W. These look just like the ones above: too small, too white, no bulb, clustered.
Lepiota cepaestipes []
SE corner of Fillmore and Oakland, in lawn just to W of first camphor tree going E.
| | GEN | | small mushroom, clumped, in lawn |
| | ST | | 60x4mm, even, no bulb, conspic collar-like delicate ring, smooth, white but with subtle yellowish cast, white mycelial cotton around base |
| | CAP | | 40-50mm, conical to plane, striate within 10mm of marg, white with mealy brown particles/scales esp near center |
| | FLESH | | white, 1mm, fragile |
| | GILL | | close, clean, v free, whitish w yellish cast |
| | SPORE | | print white, ellip, smooth, 6.7-8.8x4.2-6.0um |
This minute white parasol has me stumped. There are some obvious
L. lutea growing in the vicinity, but they are all stouter, yellower, not clumped. But
Arora clearly lumps this one in with the rest... unless it is
L. fragilissimus, but there is no description of the latter, so I will resist.
Lepiota lutea []
Lawn above SE corner of Fillmore and Oakland. These are clearly yellow parasols. Included photos of them for comparison to odd fragile white ones above.
Lepiota naucina []
Lawn above SE corner of Fillmore and Oakland.
| | GEN | | med to large mushroom, scattered in lawn, nice earthy odor |
| | ST | | 90x7-15mm, stout, smooth, shiny, white, no bulb, conspic movable white ring |
| | CAP | | 50mm, round to convex, smooth, dry, white, curtain hanging from marg |
| | GILL | | white but aging pale pinkish-brownish, free |
| | SPORE | | pure white, dry, ellip-fusif w one distinctly acute tip, clear, smooth, clean w one bubble inside, 7.3-8.5x4.2-5.2um |
Lepiota naucina []
Lawn above SE corner of Fillmore and Oakland. Possibly same species. This one is older, but much smaller. Still keys the same, though. Here are the differences:
| | SPORE | | print whitish, clear, ellip, smooth, 7.2-9.0x5.0-5.8um |
Melanoleuca graminicola []
Also from lawn above SE corner of Fillmore and Oakland (a highly productive mycological resource, may they always over-water!)
| | GEN | | med mushroom, clustered (but not sharing common base), at edge of lawn on mulch |
| | ST | | 15x6mm, stubby, even, solid, fibrous, creamy whitish |
| | CAP | | 40-50mm, plane w convex marg, scalloped irreg (not perfectly round at all), smooth, yellowish brown |
| | FLESH | | whitish, 2mm, firm, watery-looking |
| | GILL | | notched, whitish to creamy, med close, clean, no cystidia |
| | SPORE | | print white, ellip, weakly but distinctly textured, dry sticky masses, 4.5-6.4x3.9-4.5um |
Arora suggests both
Leucopaxillus and
Melanoleuca (once I rule out genera with smooth spores), however the former are all way too large. Inside
Melanoleuca,
Arora keys to
M. melaleuca-group. Michael Kuo's key treats this "group" better, and clearly suggests
M. graminicola due to lack of cystidia. His description is entirely plausible, although my spores are a bit too small. The spores are supposed to have amyloid warts, but I have to be really creative to see any color when I use a weak IKI stain on it. In fact
nothing in my gill section is amyloid, to my eye. However, despite my disappointment at not seeing more cystidia, I did get an excellent view of a bunch of basidia, that's got to count for something. I'm so excited that I might finally have mastered the technique. (It's nothing to be proud of
just slice a bit off with a super-sharp razor, then lightly squash it in a water drop under a cover glass. Voila. Cell structure, basidia, cystidia
if present
are all clearly visible, even without any stain.)
Psathyrella candolleana []
Lawn on W side of Oakland, about midway between Fillmore and Alpine.
| | SPORE | | print rich dark choc brown, sticking in towering dry masses, ellip but often sl truncate at one end while semi-acute at other (when dry), oblong-ellip to sl bent (when wet), brown, smooth, stuff inside, 6.1-7.9x3.8-4.5um |
Agaricus []
Lawn on W side of Oakland, a bit N of midway between Fillmore and Alpine. Nice ring about 6 feet in diameter.
| | SPORE | | print brown, brownish, ellip, smooth, 5-7x3.5-5um, dry |
Seems to key to A. vaporarius in Arora, but this species isn't known to occur in California (according to mykoweb.com). After exhaustive search on web and in Arora, I find A. bitorquis to be an additional possibility. Arora neglects to mention a weak reddish stain, but I find it mentioned once or twice on the web (eg. rogersmushrooms.com).
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