The North American species of Psathyrella.

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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

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present. No tissue showing any distinctive color reaction in mounts made in
Melzer's.
Type locality. Pysht, Clallam County, Washington.
Habit and habitat: Solitary on debris along roads through alder stands.
Distribution. Oregon and Washington.
Observations. The species has the stature of P. fragilissima but has totally
different spores.
Material examined. Oregon: Smith 3578. Washington: Kauffman 10-20-25;
Smith 3269 (Type); Wehmeyer 10-12-22.
100. Psathyrella brevipes (Murrill) A. H. Smith, comb. nov.
Drosophila brevipes Murrill, Mycologia 10: 63. 1918.
Illust. Text Fig. 249.
Pileus 4-5 cm broad, obtuse to irregularly convex, not fully expanding,
surface dry, corrugate and plicate, pale tan, darker on the disc, delicately floccose
from the remains of the veil, substriate on the margin which becomes upturned
on drying. Context without an odor.
Lamellae adnate, crowded, rather narrow, uneven and many times inserted,
pallid to brown.
Stipe 5 cm long, 7 mm thick, tapering downward, whitish, minutely whitish
floccose above, fibrillose-lacerate below, hollow.
Spores 8-11x4-5.5 /A, smooth, with an inconspicuous apical pore but apex
appearing broadly truncate, shape in face view elliptic to broadly elliptic, in
profile view slightly bean-shaped to obscurely inequilateral, color in KOH cocoacolor becoming dingy ochraceous and finally clouded with gray (color pale for
the genus), in Melzer's tawny or slightly paler, wall about 0.3 U thick.
Basidia 4-spored, 20-25 x 8-10 f, hyaline in KOH. Brachybasidioles present.
Pleurocystidia rare, delicate, hyaline, subcylindric, about 50x12 l, content
not distinctive. Cheilocystidia very delicate and poorly revived, 36-40x 8-12 p,
cylindric to subventricose with rounded apex, smooth, thin-walled, content not
distinctive.
Pileus with a cuticle of inflated cells 1-2 cells deep, their wall thin, smooth
and hyaline, the content of the cells not distinctive in KOH or Melzer's. Hyphae
of the trama poorly revived but dingy ochraceous in KOH with a smooth, thin
wall. Clamp connections probably present.
Type locality. Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba.
Habit and habitat. Solitary on soil.
Distribution. Known only from the type locality.
Observations. The species appears, on the basis of spore features, to be
closely related to P. hymenocephala. The fact that pleurocystidia are rare and
that brachybasidioles are present substantiates the impression obtained from the
features of the spores. The type specimens were apparently collected in the
faded condition hence the "corrugate and plicate" pilear surface needs to be
rechecked on moist specimens. There is the possibility that this species has
reached the "Pseudocoprinus level," i.e., having both a truly plicate-striate
pileus and brachybasidioles.
101. Psathyrella atrofolia (Peck) A. H. Smith, Contr. Univ. Mich. Herb. 5: 38.
1941.
Hypholoma atrofolium Peck, Bull. Torrey Club 23: 417. 1896.
Drosophila atrofolia (Pk.) Murrill, Mycologia 4: 303. 1912.