Fleshy Fungi of New Brunswick >> Clitocybe phaeophthalma

Clitocybe phaeophthalma (Pers.) Kuyper

Gregarious in leaf litter and rotten wood in mixed forest of Acer saccharum, Betula alleghaniensis, B. papyrifera, Populus tremuloides and Abies balsamea, Nepisiguit Protected Natural Area, New Brunswick (15-08-16/09).

Basidiospores forming a white spore print, broadly ellipsoidal, smooth, inamyloid, 4.0-5.3 X 2.6-3.5 μm, D/d = 1.26-1.65 (average: 4.4 X 3.0 μm, D/d = 1.49). Pileipellis containing numerous ellipsoidal to clavate, terminal or intercalary vesicular cells.

The fruiting bodies in the plate here were clearly very young and perhaps partly immature. However, the largest one produced a strong spore print, so it, at least, was mature. Other authors have illustrated much larger, funnel-shaped mushrooms that are probably more typical of the species. It is recognized in the field by its dull greyish orange cap and by its rather unpleasant odour, said by the British author Pat O'Reilly to resemble that of a chicken coop and has called it the 'Chicken-run funnel'. Its identity can by confirned microscopically by the characteristic vesicular cells that occur just below the surface of the cap. Some authors have called these cells chlamydospores, but that term suggests they are some kind of conidium, which is not entirely convincing. Their contents and function remain to be discovered.

Clitocybe phaeophthalma is apparently not common in Canada. Mycoportal contains records of five records from Ontario, three from Quebec and one from British Columbia. There appear to be no reports from Atlantic Canada other than this one.

Photograph: D. Malloch (15-08-16/09).