Stiff-handled soft knight
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Stiff-handled soft knight ( Melanoleuca strictipes ) |
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| ( P. Karst ) Jul. Schäff. |
The Steifstielige soft Ritterlingsartige ( Melanoleuca strictipes ) is a mushroom from the family of Ritterlingsartige relatives (Tricholomataceae). It is light, whitish-beige in color, has long stems and grows mainly in sub- to high-montane locations, where it grows on grasslands, heaths and forest clearings. The species is a saprobiont that feeds on dead plant material and colonizes acidic to alkaline soils. Its fruiting bodies appear from spring to autumn.
Many authors consider Melanoleuca strictipes to be a synonym for the alpine soft knight ( Melanoleuca subalpina ), in the Anglo-American area the synonym Melanoleuca evenosa is also used . The fruit bodies are considered edible, but they are not certified as having a pronounced taste. Some authors express the suspicion that Melanoleuca strictipes could be slightly toxic.
features
Macroscopic features
The stiff-stemmed soft knight is a long-stemmed, brownish-white mushroom with an initially hemispherical, later flat hat. The diameter of the hat is 4–10 cm; towards the middle it is slightly deepened, in the middle itself there is usually a small, dark hump. The surface of the hat skin is smooth, dry and shiny, it can be peeled off to the middle. At first it has a light white shade, later the hat turns grayish-ocher.
The lamellae of the mushroom are densely packed and mixed in. They run down the stick or are slightly bulged. In the course from the edge of the hat to the stem, they are straight or slightly bulbous. Their cutting edge is unevenly indented or wavy and notched. In young fruit bodies, the lamellae are whitish, later take on a reddish-ocher-colored hue and finally fade back to whitish with age, but they retain a faint reddish shimmer. They turn dirty brown on pressure. The spore powder is white to cream in color.
The stem measures 0.5–1 cm in width and 9–14 cm in length and is therefore longer than the hat is wide; an important distinguishing feature from the Almen soft knight ( M. subalpina ). The base of the stalk is thickened, clumpy and tomentose, the rest of the stalk is twisted or weakly longitudinally striated and has a whitish, ocher-reddish or light gray-brown tone; it is usually the same color as the hat. The tip is indistinctly frosted, a detail that can usually only be seen under a magnifying glass.
The trama of the stiff-handled soft knight is initially white, later salmon-ocher. In the hat its consistency is spongy and loose, in the stem it is longitudinally fibrous. The taste and is mild or slightly tart. According to some authors, the smell and taste - unlike the Almen soft knight - are expressly not reminiscent of flour; others cite this feature as characteristic of the stiff-handled soft knight.
Microscopic features
The stiff-stemmed soft knight has 8–10 × 4.5–6 µm large, densely warty spores , four of which sit on a basidium . Cheilocystides are abundant. They taper to a point and have a more or less lancet-like shape, so they are fusiform . They measure 40–55 × 10–13 µm, according to Marcel Bon also 40–75 × 10–15 µm.
ecology
Like all soft knights , the stiff-handled soft knights feed on dead plant residues. It is often found on meadows, alkaline semi- arid lawns or juniper heaths , acidic mountain grasslands, and on clearings and forest edges. It forms fruiting bodies from spring to autumn (in Central Europe around March to October).
distribution
The distribution area of Melaneuca strictipes covers large parts of the temperate montane Holarctic . The species is known from the Caucasus, the USA, all parts of Europe and Iceland. The fungus occurs mainly in sub- to high-montane locations, i.e. in the middle and high mountains.
Systematics
The demarcation of the species to other soft knights turns out to be complicated. This is mainly due to the fact that there is no comprehensive, critical monograph on the genus Melanoleuca and that authors have published descriptions of the species that differ significantly in some cases in the past. A generally accepted classification of the genus in the sections do not exist, Noordeloos but follows the Flora agarica Neerlandica the classification of Marcel Bon , of the Steifstieligen soft Ritterlingsartige in a section Strictipedes presented
The stiff- handled soft knight is particularly difficult to distinguish from the Almen soft knight ( M. subalpina ) and the white alpine soft knight ( M. substrictipides ). The Almen soft knight is usually described as stockier - with a larger hat diameter than the length of the stem - and with cracked fields on the hat surface. Its cheilocystids also have round ends, the caulocystids at the tip of the stem are short and wide, while the stiff-stemmed soft knight also has elongated elements similar to the cheilocystids. The white alpine soft knight is very similar to the alpine soft knight, but has very narrow and septate cheilocystides that are reminiscent of stinging hairs. The position of these three species is controversial, especially since the Anglo-American literature often uses the synonym Melanoleuca evenosa for both American forms of M. strictipes and M. subalpina . In general, no varieties are recognized for the stiff-handled soft knight .
swell
literature
- Michael Jordan: The encyclopedia of fungi of Britain and Europe. frances lincoln ltd, 2004. ISBN 0711223793 , p. 161.
- German Josef Krieglsteiner (Ed.), Andreas Gminder : Die Großpilze Baden-Württemberg . Volume 3: Mushrooms. Leaf mushrooms I. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3536-1 .
- ME Noordeloos & Th. W. Kuyper (eds.): Flora agaricina neerlandica. Vol.4: critical monographs on families of agarics and boleti occurring in the Netherlands. Taylor & Francis, 1999. ISBN 9054104937 .
Web links
- Melanoleuca strictipes on Index Fungorum , www.indexfungorum.org, 2008.
