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Go to the NZFungi website for more indepth information on Cortinarius epiphaeus. Cortinarius epiphaeus

Synonyms

Thaxterogaster epiphaeus

Biostatus

Present in region - Indigenous. Endemic

Images (click to enlarge)

 

Owner: J.A. Cooper
Caption: FUNNZ2007/0613
Owner: FUNNZ
Caption: Dried type specimen
Owner: Herb PDD
Caption: Thaxterogaster epiphaeum Hk. sp.n. (type): a. fruitingbodies. b. spores. c. basidia. d. cuticle.

Caption: Watercolour
Owner: G.M. Taylor
Caption: fruitbody
Owner: J.A. Cooper
Owner: J.A. Cooper
 

Article: Horak, E. (1973). Fungi Agaricini Novazelandiae I-V. Beihefte zur Nova Hedwigia 43: 200 p.
Description: Gastrocarp 15-30 x 15-12 mm, depressed globose becoming ovoid, peridium brown or yellow-brown (pallid tan), slightly viscid, smooth, margin of peridium dehiscent from stipe partially exposing gleba. Gleba loculate or indistinctly lamelliform, ± radially arranged, loculi oblong, dull rust brown, with pallid tramal plates, gleba free from stipe (columella) for about half of its length, exposed, but covered with white thin veil. Stipe 40-80 x 5-10 mm, cylindric, occasionally attenuated towards the base, whitish to yellow-brown, smooth, dry, hollow, without veil remnants. Context white, longitudinally fibrous. Odor and taste not distinctive. Chemical reactions on peridium unknown.
Spores 9.5-14 x 6-7 µm, elliptic, with minute warts becoming coarser towards the apex, mostly axially symmetric, ferruginous. Basidia 30-37 x 8-10 µm, 4-spored. Cystidia absent. Epicutis consisting of radially arranged, gelatinised, cylindrical (2-6 µm diam.) hyphae forming a cutis, membrane thin-walled and encrusted with brown pigment. Hyphae of subcutis 5-20  µm diam. Clamp connections numerous.
Habitat: On ground under Nothofagus cliffortioides, N. fusca and N. menziesii. New Zealand.
Notes: This species is well characterised by its yellow-brown colouration, the equal stipe and relatively small, minutely warted spores. Only considering the species of Thaxterogaster found in New Zealand, this taxa keys out to Th. carneolum HK;. whose spores, however, are larger and the colours of the gastrocarp more reddish brown. The closest relative is Th. cunninghamii Hk (see above) which grows in the Eucalyptus forests of South Australia.