name | Limacella illinita var. rubescens |
name status | nomen acceptum |
author | H. V. Sm. |
english name | "Blushing Slimy Stem" |
cap | The cap of L. illinita var. rubescens is 25 - 70 mm wide, white, convex to companulate or broadly umbonate, and very viscid. Its white flesh is said to be rather fragile. |
gills | The gills are narrowly adnexed, close to subdistant, and white. Nothing is known of the short gills. |
stem | The solid stem of var. rubescens is 60 - 105 × 6 - 8 mm, white in the upper part, and becoming red or vinaceous or pinkish vinaceous in the lower part. The ring was simply described as "glutinous'" The slime on the stem is said to "often" become "maroon red." |
odor/taste | This odorless mushroom is described as having a taste that its author felt separated it from the taxon to which she applied the name L. illinita in North America: The slime is slightly bitter, and the flesh is described as bitterish and like ground grain (meal). |
spores | The author provided no microscopic data taken specifically from this mushroom. |
discussion |
The type collection of this taxon came from Québec, Canada, where it was found in Spruce-Balsam Fir forest. Without any detail, the author says that it was also collected in the U.S. state of New York. A review of the type collection is necessary to improve our understanding of this species. The species has been claimed from Europe by Neville and Poumarat (2004: 245-248), who published a description and illustrations of European material they assigned to this taxon. They did not review the type. Their measurements of 20 spores from European material suggest that its spores are almost perfectly globose on average and smaller than described for L. illinita sensu H. V. Smith; in the protolog of var. rubescens, it is said to have spores that are of the same form as in L. illinita sensu H. V. Smith. Smith maintained that there was a distinctive bitterness in the taste of this variety; this is not mentioned for the European material. Smith found no distinctive odor in the present entity, while Neville and Poumarat report an odor of rancid meal ("farine rance") in their mushroom. The latter authors say that the cap of their material is grayish white when the staining of the slime is discounted—like the cap of the true L. illinita of Europe; this differs from the reported color of the present fungus. At the moment, the editor is inclined to think the present taxon is restricted to the Americas. |
brief editors | RET |
name | Limacella illinita var. rubescens | ||||||||
author | H.V. Sm., 1945. Pap. Michigan Acad. Sci. 30: 136. | ||||||||
name status | nomen acceptum | ||||||||
english name | "Blushing Slimy Stem" | ||||||||
MycoBank nos. | 352356 | ||||||||
GenBank nos. |
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holotypes | MICH | ||||||||
intro |
The following text may make multiple use of each data field. The field may contain magenta text presenting data from a type study and/or revision of other original material cited in the protolog of the present taxon. Macroscopic descriptions in magenta are a combination of data from the protolog and additional observations made on the exiccata during revision of the cited original material. The same field may also contain black text, which is data from a revision of the present taxon (including non-type material and/or material not cited in the protolog). Paragraphs of black text will be labeled if further subdivision of this text is appropriate. Olive text indicates a specimen that has not been thoroughly examined (for example, for microscopic details) and marks other places in the text where data is missing or uncertain. The following material is derived from the protolog of the present taxon. | ||||||||
pileus | from protolog: 25 - 70 mm wide, white, convex to companulate or broadly umbonate, very viscid; context rather fragile, white, 2 - 7 mm thick above stipe; margin not described; gluten layer not described. | ||||||||
lamellae | from protolog: narrowly adnexed, close to subdistant, white; lamellulae not described. | ||||||||
stipe | from protolog: 60 - 105 × 6 - 8 mm, cylindric, appearing proportionately thick, white above, below becoming red or vinaceous or pinkish vinaceous; bulb not described; context solid; partial veil "glutinous"; gluten layer often becoming "maroon red." | ||||||||
odor/taste | from protolog: Odorless. Taste slightly bitter (gluten layer on pileus) or bitter-farinaceus (context). | ||||||||
macrochemical tests |
none recorded. | ||||||||
pileipellis | probably absent. | ||||||||
pileus context | not described. | ||||||||
lamella trama | not described. | ||||||||
subhymenium | not described. | ||||||||
basidia | not described. | ||||||||
gluten layer | not described. | ||||||||
stipe context | not described. | ||||||||
partial veil | not described. | ||||||||
lamella edge tissue | probably fertile. | ||||||||
basidiospores | said to be like those of L. illinita sensu H. V. Smith. | ||||||||
ecology | from protolog: Terrestrial. Under Picea and Abies balsamica. | ||||||||
material examined | from protolog: CANADA: QUÉBEC—Unkn. Co. - Barnet, 25.ix.1938 F. L. Drayton s.n. (holotype, MICH 1353). | ||||||||
discussion |
from protolog: "This variety is distinguished from var. typica [sic]" by the changing gluten (to pinkish or red) on the stipe and by the taste. In dried material as well as in fresh specimens the reddish color is noticeable. The beneath is white or whitish. ... Kauffman found [this entity] in the Adirondack Mountains of New York." Microscopic characters were reported to be "as reported for" L. illinita sensu H. V. Smith. The data in question is rather sparse, and the editor believes the original material of the present species must be revised to provide reliable information. The species has been claimed from Europe by Neville and Poumarat (2004: 245-248), who published a description and illustrations of European material they assigned to this taxon. They did not review the holotype or any other material from the Americas. Their measurements of 20 spores from European material suggest that its spores are almost perfectly globose on average and smaller than described for L. illinita sensu H. V. Smith, which was Smith's model for the microscopic characters of the present taxon (see above). The editor has never seen spores reported as perfectly globose that were in fact that shape when the material was revised according the methods supported by this site; however, even if Neville and Poumarat have got the shape a bit wrong, their observed spore lengths range from 3.5 to 5 μm, whereas the Smith's description would suggest a range of 5 - 6.3 μm. The distinctive bitterness Smith describes in the taste of the present fungus is not mentioned for the European material. Smith found no distinctive odor in the present entity, while Neville and Poumarat report an odor of rancid meal ("farine rance") in their mushroom. The latter authors say that the cap of their material is grayish white when the staining of the slime is discounted—like the cap of the true L. illinita of Europe; this differs from the reported coloring in var. rubescens. At present, the editor is entertaining the possibility that Neville and Poumarat described a different taxon under the present name. In addition, it must be considered that the present taxon may not be a variety of L. illinita. | ||||||||
citations | —R. E. Tulloss | ||||||||
editors | RET | ||||||||
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name | Limacella illinita var. rubescens |
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name | Limacella illinita var. rubescens |
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Each spore data set is intended to comprise a set of measurements from a single specimen made by a single observer; and explanations prepared for this site talk about specimen-observer pairs associated with each data set. Combining more data into a single data set is non-optimal because it obscures observer differences (which may be valuable for instructional purposes, for example) and may obscure instances in which a single collection inadvertently contains a mixture of taxa.