History of Name:
Laccaria laccata var. striatula
Peck, Annual Rep. New York State Bot. 48: 244. 1894. Laccaria striatula
(Peck) Peck, Annual Rep. New York State Bot. 157: 93. 1912.
Type: U.S.A.: New York, Catskill Mountains, September, C. H. Peck s.n. (NYS!,
holotype).
Species Synopsis:
Pileus mostly 8-30 mm broad, strongly translucent-striate, reddish brown to orange
brown. Lamellae pinkish flesh color. Stipe up to 70 mm long, gracile, glabrous, not
striate, appearing cartilaginous when fresh, often somewhat darker than pileus; basal
mycelium white. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Cheilcystidia lacking. Basidiospores mostly
7-10 µm diam. (excluding ornamentation), globose, echinulate; spines 1.4-2.8
µm long, > 1.2 µm wide at base. Eastern North America, often in wet
moss.
Habitat and Distribution:
Scattered to gregarious; in damp areas, often among wet mosses, usually not among
Sphagnum, in mixed forests with Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. and/or
other Pinaceae and Fagaceae, eastern North America. Material of this taxon has not
been reported from Europe. In eastern North America it is common and abundant. See
Specimens Examined for
the list of species studied.
Observations:
Laccaria striatula is easily recognizable by its strongly translucent-striate
pileus; long, gracile, glabrous, reddish brown stipe; and globose basidiospores with
long and wide echinulae. These characteristics differentiate it from L. laccata
var. pallidifolia and L. ohiensis, the two taxa to which it is phenetically
most similar. Due to the difficulty of interpreting dried herbarium material lacking
macromorphological notes, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between material
of L. ohiensis and L. striatula.
Tissue cultures of this taxon were not obtained but homokaryotic isolates and reconstituted
dikaryons were white and grew moderately fast on all employed media. Homokaryotic
isolates of L. striatula were intersterile with tested isolates of other members
of the L. laccata complex (Mueller, 1991c). Material of this taxon was not
included in our RFLP analyses (Gardes et al., 1990, 1991a).
Singer (1946), Orton (1960), Bon (1983) and others have treated this name as referring
to a taxon with bisterigmate basidia. An examination of the type specimen, however,
showed it to have 4-sterigmate basidia and that concept is used here.
This taxon is abundant in wet mossy areas in the mountains of Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Nova Scotia. It has also been collected in southern
Ontario and northern Michigan and Wisconsin.
Mueller (1985) incorrectly used the name L. glabripes McNabb for this taxon.
Aguirre-Acosta and Pérez-Silva (1978) reported L. glabripes from Mexico.
Although I have not seen their material, it is likely that it is referable to L.
striatula not L. glabripes. All other reports of L. glabripes have
come from Australia and New Zealand. I have not encountered material of L. striatula
among the specimens that I have collected and examined from Costa Rica and South
America.
Macromorphology:
Pileus 6-30(-36) mm broad, convex, occasionally becoming plane, often depressed,
strongly translucent-striate when fresh, occasionally plicate-striate, finely fibrillose,
occasionally finely fibrillose-scaly near disc, hygrophanous, reddish brown to orange-brown
("Hazel," "Cinnamon-Rufous" or "Vinaceous-Rufous"),
then lighter in color ("Salmon Color," "Seashell Pink" or "Pinkish
Buff"); disc occasionally darker in color ("Hay's Russet"); margin
incurved to decurved, becoming plane, entire to undulate; context thin, concolorous.
Lamellae sinuate to adnate, close to subdistant to distant, relatively narrow
to broad, thin to thick, pinkish flesh color ("Flesh-Ocher" or "Pale
Flesh Color"). Stipe 20-70(-103) x 1-4(-8) mm, equal, occasionally slightly
bulbous, glabrous, appearing cartilaginous when fresh, reddish brown, concolorous
with disc or darker ("Kaiser Brown," "Hazel," "Cinnamon-Rufous"
or "Onion-skin Pink"). Basal mycelium white.
Micromorphology:
Pileipellis of interwoven hyphae with scattered to numerous small fascicles
of ± perpendicular hyphae; fascicles usually composed of 5-15 hyphae; terminal
cells of fascicular hyphae 33-85 x 6-18.5 µm, filamentous, subclavate, clavate,
subcapitate or ventricose-rostrate, occasionally strangulate; walls up to 0.5 µm
thick, hyaline to light yellowish brown; contents hyaline to light yellowish brown.
Pileus trama tightly interwoven, morphologically undifferentiated, hyaline,
light yellowish brown toward pileipellis. Lamellar trama parallel; hyphae
3-11(-27) µm diam, thin-walled, hyaline to light yellowish brown; cells filamentous
to barrel-shaped. Subhymenium morphologically undifferentiated. Basidia
30-59.5 x 8-14.5 µm, clavate, hyaline; sterigmata 4, up to 11 µm long.
Cheilocystidia not observed. Basidiospores (excluding ornamentation)
[265/13] 7-10(-12) x 7-10(-12) µm [ = 8-9(-10) x 7.7-9(-10) µm], Q = 1(-1.12)
[ = 1-1.04], globose, rarely subglobose, hyaline, echinulate; echinulae 1.4-2.8 µm
long, up to 1.8 µm wide at base, crowded; hilar appendix 1.3-2 µm long,
prominent, truncate; plage present; contents occasionally uniguttulate. Basal
mycelium hyphae mostly 2-12.5 µm diam, tightly interwoven, hyaline; cells
filamentous to barrel shaped.