Fleshy Fungi of New Brunswick >> Galerina marginata

Galerina marginata (Batsch) Kühner

Picture of Galerina jaapii 22-10-20/01

Gregarious (6) in a weedy lawn with mosses and Hieracium sp., with no close trees, 1.5 km SW of Little Lepreau, New Brunswick (22-10-20/01).

Pileus conical at first, expanding to broadly convex, with a slightly developed umbo when young but almost without an umbo at full expansion, striate, moist, glabrous, dark red brown (HSV00:50:30-40) at first, later developing more orange colours (HSV40:30:90) toward the margin, hygrophanous, 8-11 mm in diameter. Stipe equal, finely appressed white-fibrillose below the annular zone, with a sparse fibrillose and brownish annular ring, pale orange (HSV45:20-30:40) at first, later darkening to dark red brown (HSV00:40:30), 13-22 x 1.2-1.5 mm. Lamellae pale orange yellow (HSV45:10:100), subclose, adnate to subdecurrent, not marginate. Flesh concolorous with the surface tissues, lacking a distisnctive odour and taste.

Basidiospores bright orange brown (HSV25:50:80-90) in spore print, almond shaped to subfusiform, with a strongly tapered apex, finely but distinctly roughened, with an inconspicuous plage, not calyptrate, strongly dextrinoid, 7.9-10.0 x 4.7-5.4 µm, Q = 1.63-1.92 (average[53]: 8.9 x 5.1 µm, Q = 1.76). Cheilocystidia forming a nearly continuous sterile margin, mostly ventricose-rostrate, with neck often wavy, often slightly enlarged at the apex, thin-walled, 39-76 x 8.0-11.2 µm. Pleurocystidia scattered, similar to the cheilocystidia, 46-79 x 6.1-12.8 µm. Basidia clavate, 4-spored, with a basal clamp connection. Pileipellis a thin yellow ixocutis 1-3 cells deep, with subcutis poorly defined and composed of parallel brown encusted hyphae, without pileocystidia. Clamp connections present on most septa.

A notoriously poisonous little mushroom, occuring on both rotting wood and woody debris and on soil. It is recognized by its pileus with an incurved margin when young, annulate stipe, presence of pleurocystidia and its strongly dextrinoid almond-shaped basidiospores.

Photograph: D. Malloch (22-10-20/01).