VIRTUAL MYCOTA: NZ Fungi Identification: Hygrocybe blanda

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Hygrocybe blanda

Biostatus

Present in region - Indigenous. Endemic

Images (click to enlarge)


Caption: Hygrocybe blanda Owner: Kaimai Bush	Caption: Hygrocybe blanda Owner: Kaimai Bush	Caption: Fig. 3 *Hygrocybe blanda* Horak (A-C: PDD 27185, type): G. basidiomesH. spores. K. basidia	Caption: ZT0915 , Holotype Owner: E. Horak: © Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand
Caption: Dried type specimen Owner: Herb PDD

Article: Horak, E. (1990). Monograph of the New Zealand Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales). New Zealand Journal of Botany 28(3): 255-306 (http://www.rsnz.org/publish/abstracts.php).
Description: Pileus -18 mm, hemispherical becoming obtusely conical or broadly campanulate, margin not upturned, lobate-sulcate in mature specimens; brilliant orange (but any red colours absent) or orange-yellow; dry, hygrophanous, conspicuously striate in wet condition, smooth. - Lamellae 6-10 (1 -1) broadly adnate to subdecurrent with short tooth, rather distant pale orange-yellow turning pale orange in aged basidiomes, entire obtuse edges concolorous. - Stipe 15-30 x 1.5-2 mm, cylindrical, equal or gradually enlarged into pileus; orange yellow in upper portion, golden yellow below; dry,minutely fibrillose, fistulose-hollow, single or caespitose. - Context orange in pileus, yellow in stipe. - Odour and taste not distinctive. - Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH - negative. - Spore print white. Spores 5.5-7 x 4-4.5 (-5) um, elliptical to ovoid, hyaline, smooth, inamyloid. - Basidia 40-45 x 5um, 4-spored. - Cystidia absent. - Pileipellis a cutis of cylindrical, non-gelatinised hyphae (2-6um diam.), with pale yellow (KOH) plasmatic and encrusting pigment, oleiferous hyphae present; clamp connections present (Pl. 1, Fig. 4, 7).
Habitat: ECOLOGY. Rare; on soil among moss and litter in mixed moss forest. June.
Distribution: DISTRIBUTION: NZ (NA-LBI).
Notes: ETYMOLOGY: blandus = attractive.
The yellow-orange basidiomes with no trace of red colours and the decurrent lamellae relate Hygrocybe blanda to both H. firma and H. cerinolutea. Microscopically, however, the identification of H. blanda is readily achieved. The spores of this taxon measure only 5.5-7 um and thus are much smaller than those reported for the latter two species. Also the size of the basidia significantly separates H. blanda from its similar-looking relatives.