Micheli's description and figures, Nov. Plant. Gen., pp. 216, 217, Tab. 95, leave no doubt but that this illustrious man had species of Lycogala before him when he described the genus. His figure 1. no doubt portrays the second species in our present list. More recent writers, from Persoon down, have used Micheli's designation, but differed in regard to the limits to which the name should be applied. It is here used substantially as in 1729. Fries and, after him, Rostafinski make a mistake in quoting Retzius as writing Lycogala (1769). Retzius wrote Lycoperdon sessile; Kongl. Vetenskaps Acad. Handling, för Ar. 1769, p. 254.
Key to the Species of Lycogala
| A. Æthalia irregularly globose. | ||
| a. Cortex minutely roughened or warted; about 12 mm. in diameter | 1. L. epidendrum | |
| b. Cortex smooth, size large | 2. L. flavo‑fuscum | |
| c. Cortex rough; diameter 6 mm. or less | 3. L. exiguum | |
| B. Æthalia conical | 4. L. conicum | |
1. Lycogala epidendrum (Buxb.) Fries.
- 1721. Lycoperdon epidendron, etc., Buxb., En. Pl. Hal., p. 203.
- 1753. Lycoperdon epidendrum Linn., Sp. Pl., p. 1184.
- 1829. Lycogala epidendrum (Buxb.) Fries, Syst. Myc. III., p. 80.
Æthalia solitary or clustered, depressed spherical, or, when crowded, irregular, olivaceous or blackish, minutely warted, 3–10 mm. in diameter, dehiscing irregularly, but more often near the apex; peridium thin, but tough and persistent, made up of numerous agglutinated tubules enclosing in their mashes peculiar cell-like vesicles; capillitium parietal, consisting of long, branching, and anastomosing flattened tubules extended inwardly among the spores, everywhere marked by transverse wrinkles, ridges, and warts, the free ends of the ultimate branchlets rounded, concolorous with the spores; spore-mass, when fresh, rosy, or ashen with a rosaceous or purplish tinge, becoming with age sordid or ochraceous, spores by transmitted light colorless, minutely roughened or reticulate, 5–6 µ.
This is not only a cosmopolitan species, but is no doubt, the most common slime-mould in the world. Found everywhere on decaying wood of all sorts, more particularly on that of deciduous trees. It has likewise been long the subject of observation. It is doubtless the "Fungus coccineus" of Ray, 1690, and the type of Micheli's genus as here, 1729. The different colors assumed, from the rich scarlet of the emerging plasmodium to the glistening bronze of the newly formed æthalium, have suggested various descriptive names,—as L. miniata Pers., L. chalybeum of Batsch, and L. plumbea Schum. The peridium is by authors described as double. This is for description only. In structure the outer and inner peridium completely blend. The outer is predominately vesiculose, the inner more gelatinous. For discussion of the microscopic structure see under the next species.
Common. New England, west to Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California; Alberta to Nicaragua.
Lycogala terrestre Fr., Syst. Myc., III., 83, appears to be a variety of the present species. In spores and capillitial thread the forms are indistinguishable; the difference is a matter of size, and to some extent, of the color of the wall. The specimens are a little larger, depressed and angular. The peridium is paler, smoother, though sometimes almost black, thin, ruptured irregularly. But the form and color of the peridium in the sporocarps of the older species vary much in response to external conditions; on a substratum affording scant nutrition the forms of fructification are minute; and in all cases, if maturity be hastened, the peridium responds in darker colors. Under more favorable conditions the wall is smoother and brighter.
2. Lycogala flavo-fuscum (Ehr.) Rost.