|
 Pleurotus australis
SynonymsAgaricus australis
Pleurotus ostreatus
BiostatusPresent in region - Indigenous. Non endemic
Images (click to enlarge)
Article: Segedin, B.P.; Buchanan, P.K.; Wilkie, J.P. (1995). Studies in the Agaricales of New Zealand: new species, new records and renamed species of Pleurotus (Pleurotaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 8: 453-482.
Description: NZ material: Pileus 25-150 (-180) mm in diameter, spathulate to more or less flabelliform,
broadly convex to nearly plane, or shallowly to deeply depressed; colour yellow
brown, linoleum brown (5E7, K & W) with olive tints, yellow towards the
stipe (PDD 59208), greyish yellow brown (PDD 59214), dark yellow brown (6E5,
K & W) (PDD 59215), pale brown, autumn leaf (PDD 59211), dark cigar brown,
yellow near stipe (PDD 59213), dark reddish brown (8E5, K & W) (PDD 59211);
smooth, with a silky sheen when dry, bearing numerous very fine, cottony hairs;
margin strongly inrolled especially when young, sometimes only slightly so when
fully expanded, entire. In dried material, pileus fawn, grey brown, dark brown
(6E5, 7E5, 7E6, K & W) sepia. Lamellae decurrent, white to cream (4A5, K
& W), drying buff to fulvous, broad (10-12 mm), moderately crowded, fairly
thick, in three or four series; edges even, sometimes finely fimbriate under
lens, concolorous. Stipe short, 40 x 35 mm, lateral, excentric or almost central,
but sometimes absent, giving way to thickened point of attachment, cream in
colour, ribbed to reticulate in upper portion from ends of decurrent lamellae,
more or less white tomentose towards base. Flesh thin towards margin, fleshy
and firm near attachment, white. Taste slightly astringent on chewing. Smell
often none, or sweetish, or slight fragrance of grass. Spore print white, becoming
pale buff in storage.
Basidia, cheilocystidia, and pleurocystidia as in the type. Trama and context
monomitic; in sections of the context taken near the lamellae are found a few
thick-walled, narrow hyphal endings. No oleiferous hyphae present. On the surface
of the pileus is a layer of intermeshed hyphae of cells 5-6 X 25-40 µm, all
with brownish, plasmatic pigment and many of them with brown, lightly encrusted
walls. In some basidiomes (particularly those produced in culture) pilocystidia
like the cheilocystidia can be found. Stipe tomentum variable in development,
sometimes giving a strongly hirsute appearance. Constituent hyphae as in the
holotype.
Holotype: Cooke (1886) described P. australis as 'P. fleshy, convex, smooth, umber
(2-3 in.), stem somewhat lateral, short, thick, clad with white tomentum, solid
(about an inch long and thick), gills broad, distant, decurrent, spores cylindric-elliptic,
straight or curved, 16-18 X 4 µm.'
The exsiccatus shows a pileus 55 mm diameter, dark
reddish brown, smooth, dry, fleshy; margin distinctly inrolled; lamellae decurrent,
extending in shallow ridges down the stipe, broad (4-5 mm), distant, dark ochraceous;
stipe short, 18 mm long by 5-15 mm wide, solid, pale ochraceous, with ridges
from the decurrent lamellae in the upper half, faintly anastomosing, tomentose
at the base.
Spores 10.5-14 X 4-6 (12.3 X 4.5) µm, Q = 2.7, hyaline, cylindrical, thin-walled,
inamyloid, not dextrinoid, variable in size; basidia 30-45 X 7.5 µm, club-shaped,
usually with four fairly stout sterigmata, but possibly occasionally also with
two; cheilocystidia forming a broad band, arising from narrow, parallel, radiating
hyphae, 16-25 X 5 µm, typically clavate, extended apically, or mucronate, with
a small swelling at the apex, sometimes surrounded by a small globule of mucus,
hyaline, thin-walled; pleurocystidia occasional, club-shaped, 20-30 X 2-6 µm,
with 2 or 3 apical processes; sub-hymenium moderately wide (35 µm), filamentous;
trama of hyaline, thin-walled, uniform generative hyphae 5-6 µm in diameter,
approximately parallel in an undulating pattern, descending; context of hyaline,
thin-walled generative hyphae, mostly 7.5 µm in diameter, forming a close network;
clamp connections present on all hyphae; oleiferous hyphae absent. Pileipellis
a mesh of slightly thick-walled, branching hyphae with yellowish pigment. Stipe
tomentum made up of bundles of narrow, thin-walled, clamped, hair-like hyphae
of varying lengths and 2-3 um in diameter.
Habitat: australia—on roots of Leptospermum in S. Australia (holotype). new zealand—in
indigenous forest, growing on the wood of Leptospermum scoparium J.R,
& G. Forst, Kunzea ericoides (A. Rich.) Joy Thomps., Corynocarpus
laevigatus J.R. & G. Forst. and Sophora microphylla Alton, occasionally
on the ground from buried roots. The basidiomes may be solitary or in imbricate
clusters. Corner (1981) did not name the host wood in Malaysia.
Collections Examined
Article: Stevenson, G. (1964). The Agaricales of New Zealand: V. Kew Bulletin 19(1): 1-59.
Description: A small form of this widespread species, closely similar to that illustrated by Lange (1936), was collected at Levin on a tree lucerne stump by A. S. Wilkinson, 1.8.1952. This collection, Stevenson 874, had a sour smell when fresh, but anatomical characters and spores agree with descriptions of this species. A larger form with yellow gills was collected from indigenous forest by M. Curran, at Muritai, 12.2.1958.
Notes: [mixed collections and description]
|