(iv) Fungi of beds of herbaceous plants
Beds of herbaceous plants provide protection for many small agarics and collecting can be conducted in these situations from spring to early winter. The buffered environments under the herbs is humid and relatively still, and this allows the development of the small often delicate fruit-bodies of certain species to continue unimpeded. Nettle-beds or mixtures of nettle and dog’s mercury have very rich floras under the shelter of their leaves and stems, either on the bare soil or plant debris.
On herbaceous stems
Coprinus urticicola (Berkeley & Broome) Buller
Cap: width 4-7 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 10-15 mm.
Description: [Plate 76].
Cap: white then greyish, globose at first and then expanding to become plane with upturned margin covered, at first, with scales from a veil which at the centre are white-tipped with ochre.
Stem: white and slightly downy.
Spore-print: brownish black.
Spores: elliptic-ovoid, only slightly compressed with distinct germ-pore, dark brown under the microscope and 6-8 × 5 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: ellipsoid to pyriform and hyaline.
Facial cystidia: elongate cylindric larger than marginal cystidia.
On bare soil
Leptonia babingtonii (Bloxam) P. D. Orton
Cap: 5-15 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 20-50 mm.
Description: [Plate 76].
Cap: grey to sepia or greyish brown entirely scaly-hairy, at first, but then fibrillose.
Stem: silvery grey to grey-sepia and silky fibrillose.
Gills: greyish pink.
Spore-print: greyish pink.
Spores: very long, wavy angular in outline, very pale honey under the microscope and 14-20 × 7-9 µm.
Marginal cystidia: club-shaped or balloon-shaped and hyaline.
Facial cystidia: absent.
So very different to other species of Leptonia is it that it should be classified in Dr. Pilát’s genus Pouzaromyces.
Conocybe mairei Watling
Cap: width 5-10 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 10-40 mm.
Description:
Cap: pale to deep ochraceous or buff, minutely tomentose.
Stem: flexuous, whitish or very pale ochraceous.
Gills: pale buff then ochraceous.
Spore-print: ochraceous.
Spores: medium sized, ellipsoid or slightly almond-shaped with small germ-pore and 6-8 × 3-4 µm in size.
Flammulaster granulosa (J. Lange) Watling
Cap: 4-15 mm. Stem: width 1 mm; length 10-25 mm.
Description:
Cap: ochraceous to date-brown, darker at the centre and granular scaly throughout.
Stem: similarly coloured to the cap and similarly roughened, except for the slightly smoother paler apex.
Spores: ellipsoid to almond-shaped, very pale brown under the microscope and 8-10 × 4-5 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: cylindric-wavy, hyaline.
Facial cystidia: absent.
Depending on the herbaceous constituents the fungus-flora will vary. Certain species are found on all sorts of herbaceous debris, but others are much more specific to their substrate preferences. Beds of Butterbur, Coltsfoot or Impatiens are also good hunting places, as are beds of sedges in fenland. In many of these localities agarics with reduced fruit-bodies looking like disc-fungi are frequently seen. We have already discussed the specific requirements of certain species of Marasmius (see [p. 92]).
Plate 76. Fungi of alder-carrs and from under herbaceous plants
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