Dark-Spored Agarics Research Articles

Mythicomycetaceae fam. nov. (Agaricineae, Agaricales) for accommodating the genera Mythicomyces and Stagnicola, and Simocybe parvispora reconsidered.

The analysis of a combined dataset including 5.8S (ITS) rDNA, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, and rpb2 data from species of the Agaricineae (Agaricoid clade) supports a shared monophyletic origin of the monotypic genera Mythicomyces and Stagnicola. The new family Mythicomycetaceae, sister to Psathyrellaceae, is here proposed to name this clade, which is characterised, within the dark-spored agarics, by basidiomata with a mycenoid to phaeocollybioid habit, absence of veils, a cartilaginous-horny, often tapering stipe, which discolours dark brown towards the base, a greyish brown, pale hazel brown spore deposit, smooth or minutely punctate-verruculose spores without a germ pore, cheilocystidia always present, as metuloids (thick-walled inocybe-like elements) or as thin-walled elements, pleurocystidia, when present, as metuloids, pileipellis as a thin ixocutis without cystidioid elements, clamp-connections present everywhere, and growth on wood debris in wet habitats of boreal, subalpine to montane coniferous forests. Simocybe parvispora from Spain (two collections, including the holotype), which clusters with all the sequenced collections of Stagnicola perplexa from Canada, USA, France and Sweden, must be regarded as a later synonym of the latter.

Galerina Earle: A polyphyletic genus in the consortium of dark-spored agarics

The basidiomycete genus Galerina Earle accommodates more than 300 small brown-spored agarics worldwide, predominantly described from the Northern hemisphere. The delimitation of species and infrageneric units hitherto has been based on morphological and, to some extent, ecological characters. In this study we have analyzed nuclear ribosomal LSU and ITS sequences to reveal infrageneric phylogeny and the phylogenetic placement of Galerina among the dark-spored agarics. Sequences from 36 northern hemisphere Galerina species and 19 other dark-spored taxa were analyzed, some of them obtained from EMBL/GenBank. Our results, received from Bayesian and distance methods, strongly suggest that Galerina is a polyphyletic genus. The LSU analysis shows that Galerina is composed of three or four separate monophyletic main groups. In addition, a few species cluster together with other dark-spored agarics. The same groups are recognized in the ITS tree and they correspond roughly to previously recognized subgenera or sections in Galerina. With high support our LSU analysis suggests that Gymnopilus is a monophyletic genus and that Gymnopilus and one of the Galerina lineages (“mycenopsis”) are sister groups. The analyses further indicate that the Galerina lineages, as well as the genus Gymnopilus, could be referred to a strongly emendated family Strophariaceae, which corresponds largely to the family as circumscribed by Kühner (1980). Our results affirm that morphological characters often are highly homoplastic in the agarics. At the present stage formal taxonomic consequences or nomenclatural changes are not proposed.

Galerina Earle: A polyphyletic genus in the consortium of dark-spored agarics

The basidiomycete genus Galerina Earle accommodates more than 300 small brown-spored agarics worldwide, predominantly described from the Northern hemisphere. The delimitation of species and infrageneric units hitherto has been based on morphological and, to some extent, ecological characters. In this study we have analyzed nuclear ribosomal LSU and ITS sequences to reveal infrageneric phylogeny and the phylogenetic placement of Galerina among the dark-spored agarics. Sequences from 36 northern hemisphere Galerina species and 19 other dark-spored taxa were analyzed, some of them obtained from EMBL/GenBank. Our results, received from Bayesian and distance methods, strongly suggest that Galerina is a polyphyletic genus. The LSU analysis shows that Galerina is composed of three or four separate monophyletic main groups. In addition, a few species cluster together with other dark-spored agarics. The same groups are recognized in the ITS tree and they correspond roughly to previously recognized subgenera or sections in Galerina. With high support our LSU analysis suggests that Gymnopilus is a monophyletic genus and that Gymnopilus and one of the Galerina lineages ("mycenopsis") are sister groups. The analyses further indicate that the Galerina lineages, as well as the genus Gymnopilus, could be referred to a strongly emendated family Strophariaceae, which corresponds largely to the family as circumscribed by Kühner (1980). Our results affirm that morphological characters often are highly homoplastic in the agarics. At the present stage formal taxonomic consequences or nomenclatural changes are not proposed.

The Crepidotaceae (Basidiomycota, Agaricales): phylogeny and taxonomy of the genera and revision of the family based on molecular evidence

Advances in phylogenetic systematics have clarified the position of most major homobasidiomycete lineages. In contrast, the status of the Crepidotaceae, a historically controversial family of dark-spored agarics, remains unaddressed. In this paper, current morphology-based classifications of the agaric genera of the Crepidotaceae were evaluated by parsimony and constraint analyses of sequence data from the nuclear large subunit rDNA. Taxa analyzed included the type species for each agaric genus allied in the family by Singer: Crepidotus, Simocybe, Pleurotellus, Tubaria, and Melanomphalia. Contrary to traditional classifications, results suggest that the crepidotoid fungi have three separate origins within the euagarics. The Crepidotaceae sensu stricto (s.s.) includes Crepidotus and Simocybe and represents a separate lineage of dark-spored euagarics. Pleurotellus is congeneric with Crepidotus. Results indicate the exclusion of both Tubaria and Melanomphalia from the Crepidotaceae s.s. Tubaria is allied with the strophariaceous taxa Phaeomarasmius and Flammulaster, while Melanomphalia has arisen from within a lineage of light-spored omphalinoid euagarics representing an independent acquisition of basidiospore pigmentation. Other pleisiomorphic and newly uncovered synapomorphic characters are discussed in detail along with the taxonomic status of each genus, and a revised family description is provided.

Studies in the Dark-Spored Agarics

Studies in the Dark-Spored Agarics

Studies in the Dark-Spored Agarics

The present study deals chiefly with notes on the microscopic characters of the types of some of the species of Coprinus, Naematoloma, Panaeolus and Psilocybe described from North America. As has long been recognized by investigators who are working in this group, the descriptive accounts, whether old or new, which do not place great emphasis on spore morphology, on the characters of the cystidia if such are present, and on the anatomical features of the fruiting bodies, are of little value in accurately delimiting taxonomic entities of any category. It naturally follows, then, that one of the first steps in a critical revision of these genera is to ascertain the diagnostic characters from the type specimens in so far as the latter are available. However, as I found out early in my work in this group, an extensive knowledge of these fungi as they occur in nature is an invaluable aid in interpreting the characters of dried specimens. Consequently, although my investigations in the group have been in progress for over ten years, it is only comparatively recently that I have established species concepts in many of the genera that are satisfactory to me, and which serve satisfactorily as the building units for a classification which is other than just haphazard. Considerable progress has been made in the recognition of species in the field through the process of mass collections, i.e., collecting material of all fruitings of dark-spored agarics found during a season. Through such methods one soon learns to recognize the frequently-encountered species and to ascertain the constancy of their characters even though he may be unable to apply binomials correctly to them. The studies of type specimens do much

Dark-Spored Agarics: V. Psilocybe

Dark-Spored Agarics: V. Psilocybe

Dark-Spored Agarics—V

Dark-Spored Agarics—V

Dark-Spored Agarics—IV

DECONICA (W. G. Sm.) Sacc. Syll. Fung. 5: Io58. I887 Delitescor Earle, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 5: 434. I909. This is a very small genus, separated from Psilocybe as a subgenus by W. G. Smith in I870, because of its decurrent lamellae, and raised to generic rank by Saccardo in I887. The attachment of the lamellae often varies to adnate or to adnate with a decurrent tooth. Two species, D. bullacea and D. scatigena, were discussed in my article on tropical agarics published in Mycologia for January, I918.

Dark-Spored Agarics—II

This genus is distinguished by its glutinous veil; decurrent, waxy lamellae; and black, elongate spores. There are very few species and these occur mostly in temperate regions. The single tropical species, G. jamaicensis, is known only from Cinchona, Jamaica, at an altitude of 1,500 meters. G. vinicolor occurs in California; G. oregonensis is abundant on the Pacific coast; and G. tomentosus is rare; the last two species being known only from the coastal region.

Dark-Spored Agarics—I

In MYCOLOGIA for January and March, I918, a series of eight articles on the gill-fungi of tropical North America was concluded with a treatment of species having brown, purplish-brown, or black spores. On page 15 in the January number of that year the fourteen genera of the subtribe Agaricanae were keyed out, beginning with the sessile Melanotus and ending with Coprinus and Clarkeinda, in which the characters are more complex. The present series of articles will deal with species occurring in temperate North America, except those confined to the Pacific Coast, which have already been considered for the most part in articles published in MYCOLOGIA some years ago. The key to the genera need not be repeated here. I shall, for convenience, begin with the larger, more fleshy species and take up the small, slenderstemmed ones later, reversing the natural order. The three genera of the present article may be distinguished from others of the subtribe by a fleshy or fibrous stem, gills that do not deliquesce, and little or no veil, which does not form a definite ring on the stem. They may be separated from each other by the following key: