Fleshy Fungi of New Brunswick >> Inocybe soluta

Inocybe soluta Velen.

Picture of Inocybe soluta 01-09-08/01 Picture of Inocybe soluta 9-08-16/01

Two collections:

We use the name I. soluta with some reservations here. It is a species described from Europe, where it grows principally in spruce forests. This habitat, plus its smooth pileus, small basidiospores and thin-walled cystidia are a good match for descriptions of European collections. The odour is somewhat problematic. Europeans usually describe the odour as spermatic, which is not the case with our several collections. Field notes accompanying most of our New Brunswick and Ontario collections describe the odour as nondescript. However, Collection 01-09-08/01 was described as having "a nondescript mushroom or slight Pelargonium odour". This suggests I. parcicoacta, described in 1977 from Nova Scotia, which was described as being pleasantly aromatic. If we consider the descriptions of "Pelargonium odour" and "pleasantly aromatic" to be possibly describing the same thing then at least Collection 01-09-08/01 might better be called I. parcicoacta. The odour in the latter, though, was obviously faint, begging the question of whether it is usually overlooked (or oversmelled) when the species is collected. Inocybe soluta and I. parcicoacta are very similar microscopically and may be distinguishable only by their very subtile odours.

Inocybe_soluta is similar to I. subcarpta, a species found in similar habitats under fir and spruce. Both have sturdy brown basidiomata with fibrillose, but not scaly, stipes and both have basidiospores that are often quadrangular in profile, and thin-walled cheilo- and pleurocystidia. They are distinguished most easily by the nearly smooth caps of I. soluta in contrast to the coarsly scaly caps of I. subcarpta.

Photo: D. Malloch (19-08-16]01).