During our recent foray to Mynydd Ddu, amongst the many waxcaps etc that we found was this interesting looking inkcap. Taking it home it was shown to have odd looking spores, which have what is called a perispore on both sides of it as can be seen in the picture below. Moreover a picture of the basidia shows that they hold only two spores. I put a query on the new fungi UK site and they were very helpful, pointing me towards a coprinopsis key.
It would seem that only two species have the combination of two-spored basidia and the odd shaped spores with a perispore: c.cinereofloccosus and c. saccharomyces. Because of the size of the spores it would appear that our find is c. cinereofloccosus. Which would make our day out more successful as according to the BMS database there are only 47 records and none in Wales.
Wonderful bit of detection ---- sorting out which 'Coprinus/coprinopsis' species as not easy but you have found a useful key. Better still, a first Welsh record (how many folk use a microscope ?)---- microscopy can be fun and not too difficult!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm well impressed Colin. Fascinating.
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