The North American species of Psathyrella.

1972]

PSATHYRELLA

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202. Psathyrella camptopoda (Peck) A. H. Smith, Mycologia 42: 126. 1950.
Agaricus camptopus Peck, Rep. N. Y. State Mus. 31: 35. 1879.
Psilocybe camptopoda (Pk.) Saccardo, Sylloge Fung. 5: 1057. 1887.
Illust. P1. 63, fig. c; P1. 70, fig. d; Text Figs. 470-472.
Pileus 1-3 cm broad, convex with an inrolled margin, becoming broadly convex
to nearly plane, not umbonate, surface glabrous and moist, closely translucent
striate on the margin before fading, no veil remnants present, colors dull watery
yellowish brown to putty-color ("buckthorn brown" to "cinnamon" becoming
"wood brown"), hygrophanous and pallid ("tilleul buff" to "olive-buff") when
faded. Context thin and somewhat cartilaginous and pliant, pallid to grayish
moist, whitish when faded, odor and taste not distinctive.
Lamellae crowded, thin, broadly adnate or becoming slightly sinuate, narrow
but in age becoming moderately broad, pallid when young, becoming "wood
brown" or finally somewhat pinkish brown from the spores.
Stipe short, 1-3 cm long, 1.5-3 mm thick, nearly always curved, hollow,
fragile, whitish to grayish, pruinose near apex, glabrous or nearly so downward
but the base somewhat strigose.
Spores 5-6 x 3-3.5 a, smooth, no apical germ pore visible, in face view elliptic
or nearly so varying to oblong, in profile slightly bean-shaped, color in KOH
hyaline with a faint pinkish tinge, tinged brick red in mass, in Melzer's yellowish
to cinnamon-buff, walls thin (-0.2 K thick).
Basidia 4-spored, 12-14(-20) x 5-7 /, hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia numerous 32-44 x 8-14 a, shape variable, fusoid to ovate- to elliptic-pedicellate,
some distinctly ventricose, hyaline in KOH, thick-walled, apex often incrusted.
Cheilocystidia of two types: some similar to pleurocystidia but the majority
balloon-shaped to saccate, 25-40 x10-20, thin-walled, yellowish in KOH.
Caulocystidia similar to the pleurocystidia but varying from thin to thickwalled and various amounts of incrustation over apex.
Gill trama regular, the hyphae parallel, pale sordid yellowish in KOH.
Pileus having a cuticle of vesiculose cells one cell thick, but not forming a
palisade, wall thin, smooth and hyaline, cell content not distinctive. Hyphae of
the context interwoven and hyaline to pale yellowish in KOH, walls smooth.
Clamps present. No distinctive reactions noted on any tissue when mounted in
Melzer's.
Type locality. Catskill Mountains, New York.
Habit and habitat. Scattered to subcespitose on rotten hardwood logs.
Distribution. United States: Alaska, Michigan, Tennessee, Washington.
Canada: Ontario.
Observations. Among the species with very small basidiocarps we have here
an almost identical situation to that shown by P. spadicea and P. sublateritia
among those with large basidiocarps. Two very similar species morphologically
differ in that one gives a spore deposit in the brick-red series and the other a
deposit in the chocolate brown series-even though both have very pale spores
in KOH under the microscope.
Material examined. UNITED STATES. Alaska: Wells-Kempton 6-29-64
no. 1. Michigan: Conrad & Langdon 11-8-93; Smith 33-977, 33-1117, 1488, 5022,
10980, 34202, 58348. Tennessee: Taylor 18686. Washington: Smith 13390, 14719.
CANADA. Ontario: Smith 4111, 4644.