Agarics Described from Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The agaricoid taxa of the Republic of South Africa had been virtually neglected until Pearson (1950) published a detailed account from the Cape Province area. Earlier literature was limited to occasional descriptions by Fries (1849) and Berkeley (1843, 1844, 1846, 1878) of agarics collected in Natal Province by Zeyher, and of collections by MacOwan, the Curator of the Cape Town Botanical Garden, in the Somerset East area of Eastern Province by Cooke (1879, 1889) and by Cooke & Kalchbrenner (1880, 1881). In 1948, the distinguished English mycologist, A. A. Pearson, was invited by the University of Cape Town to undertake the task of surveying the agaricoid mycota. He visited the Cape Province (15 April 2 July 1948) and subsequently published a detailed account (Pearson 1950) of his collections of agaricoid and boletoid fungi from the area. Pearson collected within a radius of 65 km of Cape Town. During a process of recuration of the mycological illustrations collection in the Kew Herbarium, notes, water-colour illustrations and specimens of several apparently unpublished Pearson species were discovered. These collections were apparently sent to Pearson by Miss Edith L. Stephens after his return to England and after the manuscript for his paper had been submitted. Pearson was accompanied and assisted during his visit to the Cape Province by Miss Stephens. She kept much of her collection at home, and they were in poor condition by the time they were deposited in the Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town. Many of the collections were never kept but her very detailed notes were preserved. The vast majority of the Pearson collections are now housed at Kew but a number, originally under the curatorship of the Bolus Herbarium have since been transferred to the Plant Protection Research Institute, Pretoria (PREM), and retained as the 'Stephens Collection'. Description colours cited with quotation marks are those of Ridgway (1912), and are accompanied by the Munsell (1962) notation (M).