A monograph on the genus Galerina Earle / by Alexander H. Smith and Rolf Singer.

130

The Genus Galerina Earle

Super. p. 320. 1953.
Illustrations: P1. 7, fig. D. Fig. 78 (cheilocystidia).
Pileus 10-25(30) mm broad, obtuse to conic, expanding to nearly plane
or slightly umbonate, surface viscid, glabrous, hygrophanous, "argus brown"
to "amber brown" and faintly striatulate when moist, near cinnamon buff
to clay color faded, fading in streaks from the disc outward; flesh thin, soft,
odor and taste not distinctive.
Lamellae broadly adnate, seceding, subdistant to close, broad, ochraceous tawny when mature, paler when young, edges even.
Stipe 20-40 mm long, 2-2.5 mm thick, equal, fragile, pale honey color
above, soon dark bay brown (red brown) from the base upward, surface
glabrous and shining or only at very first with a few faint fibrils near the
base.
Spores 7-8.5(9) X 4-4.5 j/, smooth, elliptic to obscurely ovoid, pale
dull cinnamon in KOH. Basidia 4-spored, 20-40 X 7-8 /L, hyaline in KOH.
Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia abundant, ventricose-subcapitate with
a thickening of the wall most always in the capitellum, some nearly filamentose-capitate and then often irregular in outline, hyaline in KOH. Gill
trama pale cinnamon in KOH, hyphal cells short and broad, subparallel,
subhymenium not gelatinous. Pileus trama cinnamon in KOH beneath a
thin pellicle of narrow hyaline gelatinous hyphae. Clamp connections
present.
HABIT, HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION: Gregarious on rotten conifer logs,
Washington, Michigan, and apparently also in Sweden. It usually fruits
during the fall, and has been found most abundantly in Wilderness Park,
Emmet County, Michigan.
OBSERVATIONS: The aspect of this species is that of Psilocybe corneipes,
but the microscopic characters of course are very different. Fries (1838)
cited Bulliard's plate 588, a good illustration and stated "velum prorsus
nullum". Our specimens check both with the plate and this description of
the lack of a veil. About the only possible discrepancy between our material
and Fries' description is that he described the gills as narrow and we find
them moderately broad to broad. However, the width of the gills as shown
in Bulliard's plate is not out of line with what we found in our collections,
and in addition Smith has observed considerable variation in the fresh
material. Consequently we are not inclined to regard this apparent difference as significant. The dark ferruginous to bay color of the base of the stipe
is quite different from the bister to "mummy brown" color found in G.
stylifera.
As to nomenclature, it appears that we must accept Kiihner's transfer
of Agaricus sideroides to Galerina, even though the fungus he described under
that name is G. stylifera.
We believe that G. stylifera is the common species of the pair in Europe,
as it is in North America, where G. sideroides is rare. If further studies should
prove that G. sideroides sens. Smith & Singer does not occur in Sweden, the
latter would have to be considered as new. If, on the other hand, G. sideroides
should be connected to G. stylifera by transitional forms-we have no reason