VIRTUAL MYCOTA: NZ Fungi Identification: Hydropus ardesiacus

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Hydropus ardesiacus

Synonyms

Leucopaxillus ardesiacus
Pleurella ardesiaca

Biostatus

Present in region - Indigenous. Endemic

Images (click to enlarge)


Caption: Fig. 35	Caption: Pleurella ardesiaca (Stev. and Taylor) Hk.: a. carpophores (nat. size). b. spores (2000 x). c basidia (1000 x). d cheilocystidia (1000 x). c. caulocystidia (1000 x). f. cuticle (500 x)	Owner: J.A. Cooper	Caption: ZT2020 Owner: E. Horak: © Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand
Caption: ZT8746 Owner: E. Horak: © Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand	Caption: ZT67-239 Owner: E. Horak: © Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand	Caption: ZT68-179 Owner: E. Horak: © Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand

Article: Stevenson, G. (1964). The Agaricales of New Zealand: V. Kew Bulletin 19(1): 1-59.
Description: Pileus 2-3 cm diam., dark grey, convex with strongly down-rolled margin, silky fibrillose; flesh white, solid, with a water soaked layer above the gills. Gills adnexed, pale grey, long and short intercalating, some forking. Stipe 2.5 x 0.5-0.7 cm, solid, fleshy, pale grey fawn with darker grey markings, base surrounded by grey hyphae. Spores 5-6 x 2-5-3 µm, strongly amyloid (Fig. 35); print white.
Habitat: On fallen log in Nothofagus forest, Butterfly, Wellington, 8.4.1961, G. M. Taylor (type).

Article: Horak, E. (1971). A contribution towards the revision of the Agaricales (Fungi) from New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 9(3): 403-462 (http://www.rsnz.org/publish/abstracts.php).
Notes: A thorough study of the type and several collections made by ourselves clearly showed that this species is taxonomically unrelated to Leucopaxillus. Details of its systematic position will be published in a later paper.

Article: Horak, E. (1971). Contributions to the knowledge of the Agaricales s.l. (Fungi) of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 9(3): 463-493 (http://www.rsnz.org/publish/abstracts.php).
Description: Pileus 10-35 mm diam., convex later becomes flat or depressed. margin involute; dark grey or smoky dark brown; densely covered with minute squamules, sometimes pruinate, dry, neither hygrophanous nor striate. Lamellae adnate, emarginate or subdecurrent, crowded, when young white, later turning cream, brown coloured in old specimens or after bruising; gill edge fimbriate or floccose, con colorous. Stipe 5-30 x 2-7 mm. excentric or lateral, rarely centrally inserted, cylindrical. curved, solid; concolorous with pileus or paler, dotted with darker dots (caulocystidia) near the apex, fibrillose or squamulose towards the base, dry, veil remnants absent. Context white, below the cuticle and in the cortex of the stipe dark brown. Smell acidulous. Taste mild.
Spore print white. Spores 4.5-6(6.5) x 2-3 µm, elliptical or subcylindrical, sometimes curved and slightly comma-like, smooth, thin-walled, strongly amyloid, germ pore absent. Basidia 18-20 x 3.5-5 µm. Cheilocystidia 20-60 x 7-18 µm., clavate or cylindrical, occasionally with a short projection at the apex, hyaline, thin-walled, forming a sterile zone at the edge. Caulocystidia 30-65 x 6-7 µm, cylindrical, thin-walled, with brown membranal or epicellular pigment. Cuticle a palisade composed of erect or intermixed clavate or cylindrical cells (15-50 x 5-10 p.), membrane thick-walled, not gelatinised, strongly encrusted with brown pigment, clamp connections present.
Habitat: On rotten wood and bark (infrequently on living trees) of Phyllocladus alpinus, rarely on Dacrydium cupressinum or Nothofagus spp. New Zealand.
Notes: Macroscopically the monotypic genus Pleurella resembles Melanoleuca Patouillard 1897 and to a lesser degree Leucopaxillus Boursier 1925. The existence of several distinct characters however, places Pleurella in an independent position between the two above-mentioned genera. The main differences separating Pleurella from Melanoleuca or Leucopaxillus are: smooth, strongly amyloid, elliptical or subcylindrical spores, conspicuous cheilocystidia, form of the carpophores and habitat.
This fungus normally grows on rotten wood of Phyllocladus alpinus (Podocarpaceae) but also occurs rarely on Dacrydium cupressinum (Podocarpaceae) or Nothofagus (Fagaceae). The species was observed many times in the wet lowland forests of the West Coast of the South Island, between Reefton and Haast.