(iii) Fungi of bogs and marshes
(a) Sphagnum bogs
Hypholoma elongatum (Fries) Ricken
Cap: width 12-20 mm. Stem: width 3-5 mm; length 50-80 mm.
Description: [Plate 75].
Cap: bell-shaped but rapidly expanding to become plane, honey-yellow with a greyish green tint, slightly striate at the margin and also with a few remnants of a fibrillose veil when very young, but these are soon lost.
Stem: slender, smooth, whitish at the apex and yellow-brown or honey-yellow below.
Gills: adnate and distant, pale ochraceous honey-yellow then lilaceous grey and finally sepia.
Flesh: yellowish in the cap, red-brown in the stem and lacking a distinct smell.
Spore-print: purplish brown.
Spores: long, ellipsoid, fairly thick-walled, olivaceous brown under the microscope and with a small germ-pore, smooth and 10-12 × 6-7 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: flask-shaped and hyaline.
Facial cystidia: flask-shaped with contents which turn yellowish in solutions containing ammonia.
General Information: This fungus which appears from early summer to late autumn is recognised by the almost uniform ochraceous colour with hint of olive and its habit of growing in troops. The word elongatum means elongated and refers to the shape of the stem which pushes up through the Sphagnum and in order to disperse its spores it must elongate so that it just pushes up above the bog-surface. H. polytrichi is closely related to H. elongatum but has a paler cap and stem and it grows in moss, particularly Polytrichum in woodlands; the spores of H. polytrichi are paler, slightly narrower and slightly thinner, but they have a much more distinct germ-pore.
Both the above species have been formerly placed in Psilocybe, but they are more correctly classified in Hypholoma along with the sulphur-tuft fungus (see [p. 64]) because of the cortina-like veil and specialised facial cystidia.
Illustrations: WD 785.
Tephrocybe palustris (Peck) Donk
Cap: width 12-30 mm. Stem: width 3-5 mm; length 50-75 mm.
Description: [Plate 75].
Cap: bell-shaped then plane-convex, but finally depressed at centre, watery buff to greyish with flush of ochre or smoky grey, striate to centre when moist, but drying out non-striate and uniformly ochraceous buff.
Stem: thin, rather long, smooth, similarly coloured to the cap or paler, fragile and whitish woolly at the base.
Gills: dirty whitish, adnate with a tooth and not very crowded.
Flesh: thin, watery buff, drying out ochraceous and with a strong smell of new meal.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, oval, not turning blue-grey in solutions of iodine, and 6-7 × 4-5 µm in size.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
General Information: This fungus which grows from late spring to autumn is usually associated with a greying and finally a killing of the Sphagnum, noticeable from a distance even in the absence of the fruiting-bodies as paler patches in the rich green bog. Another agaric found only in Sphagnum bogs is Omphalina sphagnicola (Berkeley) Moser with decurrent gills and long, elongate, hyaline spores.
At the margin of Sphagnum bogs, the fungus Mycena bulbosa can be found attached to the base of tufts of rushes.
Potting up a sward of Sphagnum and retaining it in a warm greenhouse during winter favours the bog agarics to fruit when other larger fungi are not available.
Mycena bulbosa (Cejp) Kühner
Cap: width 3-6 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 10-15 mm.
Description:
Cap: dirty white, greyish and very gelatinous.
Stem: very thin, hyaline with a very distinct hairy, basal disc.
Gills: crowded, adnexed, very short and whitish.
Spore-print: white, but because it is so small it is often difficult to see.
Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, ellipsoid, not blueing in solutions of iodine, and 8-10 × 4 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: clavate or ventricose, hyaline and smooth.
Facial cystidia: absent.
Illustrations: T. palustris LH 83.
Galerina paludosa (Fries) Kühner
Cap: width 10-20 mm. Stem: width 3-5 mm; length 50-90 mm.
Description:
Cap: conico-convex expanding slightly but retaining the central umbo, striate to half-way, sand-colour to red-brown, hygrophanous, minutely floccose because of remnants of veil distributed over its surface, but soon becoming smooth.
Stem: long, buried amongst the Sphagnum, red-brown and flecked with white fibrils, except at the finely hairy apex, the fibrils typically form a distinct but easily lost ring.
Gills: almost horizontal, adnate to subdecurrent, pale at first and then rust-brown.
Spore-print: rust-brown.
Spores: medium-sized, ovate to slightly lemon-shaped, minutely warty, honey-brown under the microscope and about 10 × 6 µm in size, (9-11 × 6-7 µm).
Facial cystidia: absent.
Marginal cystidia: hyaline, almost cylindrical or bottle-shaped with an inflated base.
General Information: This species grows from spring to early autumn in Sphagnum bogs; several other species of Galerina are also found in the same localities:—
(i) G. sphagnorum (Fries) Kühner has a convex cap, fibrillose silky and ochraceous brown stem, but it lacks the ring-zone so typical of G. paludosa. The smell is like that of meal when crushed and the gills are emarginate.
(ii) G. tibiicystis (Atkinson) Kühner has a rapidly expanding cap which becomes plano-convex or depressed at maturity; it also lacks a ring-zone, but the stem in this species is finely hairy because of the presence of numerous pin-shaped cells which can be seen only with the aid of a lens. The gills are broadly adnate.
Illustrations: G. paludosa—LH 175.
Plate 75. Fungi of marshes
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(b) Alder-carrs
Naucoria escharoides (Fries) Kummer
Cap: width 12-30 mm. Stem: width 1-3 mm; length 25-45 mm.
Description: [Plate 76].
Cap: pale yellowish ochre, but becoming darker ochraceous with age, scurfy, convex but then flattened, or with its edge upturned; the margin is slightly striate when moist.
Stem: slender, pale to dirty yellowish ochre but darker brown at base, slightly fibrillose, particularly at first because of filaments from a veil, but these are soon lost.
Gills: pale tan to brownish ochre with a paler, floccose margin, adnate and crowded.
Flesh: yellowish ochre but lacking a distinct smell.
Spore-print: clay-colour.
Spores: medium sized, almond-shaped, pale brown under the microscope, warted and 10-11 × 5-6 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: swollen below, but drawn out into a hair-like apex.
Facial cystidia: absent.
General Information: Although this is a common species growing in damp places under alder it is difficult except with an expert eye to separate it from several closely related species which are also found in similar places. At present it is not known whether these fungi are favoured by the water-logged base-rich, reducing soils found nowhere else except under alder, or if they have a special relationship with the tree. There is ample evidence that soil conditions in alder woods are rather different from those found in other woodlands, but whatever the reason Naucoria escharoides is only found under alder—in fact this species has been placed in the genus Alnicola because of this character—cola meaning inhabitant and Alnus the tree of that name. Willow-carrs have not been as extensively studied as alder-carrs but there is evidence that a store of mycological information is still to be obtained from these places. Several species of Naucoria have been described from only willow-carrs, while others are to be found under both alder and willows; about eight species are known to grow under alder. The word escharoides means scab-like and refers to the cap which when freshly collected is minutely scaly and appears scabby.
Illustrations: LH 163; WD 671.