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Go to the NZFungi website for more indepth information on Hygrocybe cantharellus. Hygrocybe cantharellus

Synonyms

Agaricus cantharellus

Biostatus

Present in region - Indigenous. Non endemic

Images (click to enlarge)

 

Caption: Hygrocybe cantharellus
Owner: Kaimai Bush

Caption: Hygrocybe cantharellus
Owner: Kaimai Bush

Caption: Hygrocybe cantharellus
Owner: Kaimai Bush

Caption: Fig. 7  Hygrocybe cantharellus (Schwein.) Murr. (A-C: ZT 2008): A. basidiomes. B spores. C. basidia.

Owner: J.A. Cooper

Owner: J.A. Cooper

Caption: ZT0575
Owner: E. Horak: © Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand
 

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 -30 mm, hemispherical-convex soon becoming expanded with flat to depressed centre, margin rarely upturned; brilliant red (vermilion, scarlet), fading to red-orange-yellow; dry, glabrous at first becoming minutely to coarsely fibrillose or squamulose, scurfy, tips of squamules concolorous, slightly hygrophanous, margin non-striate. -Lamellae 6-14 (1-3) distant, arcuate-decurrent, up to 4 mm wide; apricot, pale yellow or pale orange, edges concolorous, entire. - Stipe 20-70 x 1-2 mm, cylindrical, very slender, equal, concolorous with pileus, changing to pale orange-yellow at base; dry, glabrous, fistulose, single. - Context red beneath cortex of pileus and stipe (upper portion), otherwise pale orange. - Odour and taste not distinctive. - Chemical rcactions on pileus: KOH- yellow. Spores 7-9 (-10) x 4.5-5.5 (-6) um, ovoid. – Basidia 40-50 x 7-8um,4-spored. - Cystidia absent - Pileipellis a trichoderm of loosely interwoven, cylindrical hyphae (8-18um diam.), terminal cells cylindrical or fusoid-conical, membrane not gelatinised, with yellow (KOH) plasmatic pigment, oleiferous hyphae in subcutis; clamp connections present (Pl. 1, Fig. 1).
Habitat: ECOLOGY: Scattered; saprobic, in swamps among Sphagnum sp. with Leptospermum scoparium or in boggy broadleaved-conifer forests (Podocarpus, Agathis). March-May.
Distribution: DISTRIBUTION: NZ (NA, N, WL); AUS (NSW). - Scattered in northern hemisphere (USA, Jamaica, Europe, Japan).
Notes: According to Arnolds (1986b) H. cantharellus represents a polymorphic species-complex whose correct interpretation is still open to discussion. The New Zealand material agrees in all essential characters with the description given by Hesler & Smith (1963) and with specimens recently collected by the author (ZT 3956) in North Carolina, USA.