ISSN (print) 0093-4666
© 2013. Mycotaxon, Ltd.
ISSN (online) 2154-8889
MYCOTAXON
Volume 123, pp. 213–220
http://dx.doi.org/10.5248/123.213
January–March 2013
A new species of Stropharia from Western Ghats, India
Gunasekaran Senthilarasu*1 & Sanjay K Singh2
National Facility for Culture Collection of Fungi, MACS’ Agharkar Research Institute,
G. G. Agarkar Road, Pune–411 004, India
Correspondence to *: 1senthilarasug@rediffmail.com & 2singhsksingh@gmail.com
Abstract—Stropharia rubrobrunnea, characterized by its caespitose habit, smooth
grayish red or reddish to violet brown hygrophanous pileus, annular stipe, and dimorphic
cheilocystidia, is described and illustrated as a new species. It is distinguished from
S. rugosoannulata by its stipe color and basidiospore size.
Key words—Agaricales, Basidiomycota, dark-spored agarics, diversity, taxonomy
Introduction
The genus Stropharia (Fr.) Quél. (Strophariaceae Singer & A.H. Sm.) is
poorly known from India, where only ten species have been recorded (Manjula
1983; Natarajan et al. 2005; Farook et al. 2013; Kumaresan & Senthilarasu,
unpublished check list). Of these, S. bicolor Pegler, S. rugosoannulata Murrill
(Manimohan et al. 2007), and S. aurantiaca (Cooke) M. Imai (Natarajan
& Raman 1983) were recently recorded from southern India. Two excluded
species are S. pokhraensis Dhanch. & Bakhukh. (Dhancholia & Bakhukhandi
1992), poorly known, and S. semiglobata (Batsch) Quél. (Natarajan & Raman
1983; Vrinda & Pradeep 2011; Mohanan 2011), which lacks true acanthocytes
(Moncalvo et al. 2002) and has been transferred to Protostropharia semiglobata
(Batsch) Redhead et al. The other poorly known species earlier recorded
from India are Stropharia aureofulva (Berk.) Sacc. (as Agaricus aureofulvus),
S. gollanii Henn., S. mephistopheles (Cooke) Sacc. (no material or illustration at
Kew), S. psathyroides Henn., and S. pygmaea Henn. (Berkeley 1850, Hennings
1900). In the present paper, a new species collected from Western Ghats,
Stropharia rubrobrunnea, is described, illustrated, and compared with closely
related species.
Materials & methods
Thin handmade sections were made from dried specimens rehydrated with
alcohol were mounted in 10% KOH and stained in 3% phloxine or cotton blue prior
214 ... Senthilarasu & Singh
to microscopical examination. Approximately 50 basidiospores were measured; the
average spore range includes extreme values in parentheses. Colour terminologies follow
Kornerup & Wanscher (1978). The type specimens are deposited at Ajrekar Mycological
Herbarium (AMH), MACS’ Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India.
Taxonomy
Stropharia rubrobrunnea Senthil. & S.K. Singh, sp. nov.
Plate 1–3
MycoBank MB 564359
Differs from S. rugosoannulata by its white, smooth stipe and smaller basidiospores.
Type: India, Maharashtra state, Sinhgad, 18°21ʹ56.39ʺN 73°45ʹ18.97ʺE, 04.09.2011, coll.
G. Senthilarasu (holotype, AMH 9447).
Etymology: ‘rubrobrunnea’ refers to the colour of the pileus.
Pileus 6–18 mm (closed pileus) to 30–100 mm (matured pileus), hemispheric to
broadly parabolic, not umbonate, slightly areolate, exposing white background
when young; becoming convex to plane, slightly depressed, finally uplifted,
broadly umbonate in the shallow depression; surface grayish red (8C4-9C4),
dull red (8D4), reddish brown (9E7), changing to violet brown (10E7-10E8) to
grayish red (11D5) when young, strongly hygrophanous, pinkish white (7A211A2-11A3) on orange white (5A2) ground, becoming yellowish white (4A2),
moist, smooth; margin incurved, becoming decurved to plane, finally uplifted,
irregularly appendiculate, fugacious, not striate, entire, becoming eroded.
Lamellae adnexed to adnate, ≤5 mm wide, grayish red (11D4) to violet brown
(11F4-11F5), becoming blackish brown, crowded with numerous lamellulae,
eroded. Stipe central, 30–120 × 2–13 mm, terete, equal, slightly tapering
towards base; surface white, shiny, smooth, longitudinally striate, cartilaginous
to fibrous, solid, arising from white to yellowish white (4A2) rhizomorphs.
Annulus membranous, white, becoming vinaceous, rugulose, attached at the
one third of the stipe. Pileus context white, ≤3 mm thick.
Basidiospores (7–)7.5–8.5(–10) × (4.5–)5–5.5(–6.5) µm, (8.01 ± 0.36 ×
5.47 ± 0.28) µm, Q = 1.46, ellipsoid, slightly rhomboid in face-view, brown with
thickened dark wall, apically truncated by a broad germ-pore, smooth. Basidia
17–21 × 7–8 µm, cylindric clavate, tetrasporic; sterigmata ≤4 × 1.5 µm. Lamella
edge sterile with crowded dimorphic cheilocystidia: Cheilochrysocystidia
19–38 × 6.5–11 µm, sublageniform with a short mucronate apex, with subhyaline
to yellowish contents, thin-walled. Cheiloleptocystidia 20–52 × 6.5–10
µm, clavate to cylindric with mucronate to rostrate apex; rostrum ≤30 × 2.5
µm, sometimes sphaeropedunculate, branched, thin-walled. Chrysocystidia
abundant on the sides of the gills, 20–51 × 7–14 µm, lageniform with short
mucronate apex, containing subhyaline to yellowish contents, thick-walled.
Hymenophoral trama regular, with thin-walled, hyaline hyphae, 3–20 µm
diam. Subhymenium well developed, ≤20 µm wide, pseudoparenchymatous.
Stropharia rubrobrunnea sp. nov. (India) ... 215
Plate 1. Stropharia rubrobrunnea basidiomata under natural conditions: a. Young basidiomata.
b. Mature basidiome showing rugulose annulus. c. Gill view of mature basidiome. (Photo
Senthilarasu.)
Pileal surface a regular cutis of radially repent hyphae, 2–30 µm diam.
Pileal context with hyaline hyphae 3–23 µm diam., thin-walled with clamp
connections. Stipitipellis with hyaline hyphae 2–17 µm diam., thin-walled,
clamped. Rhizomorph with sphaerocytes and hyaline hyphae, ≤7 µm diam,
clamped; sphaerocytes ≤96 × 82 µm, globose to subglobose or ovate, hyaline,
thin-walled; acanthocytes with several outgrowths, ≤83 × 3.7 µm, thick-walled,
≤1.7 µm thick, arising from a solid base, hyaline.
216 ... Senthilarasu & Singh
Plate 2. Stropharia rubrobrunnea: a. Basidiospores. b. Basidia. c. Cheilochrysocystidia. d. Cheiloleptocystidia. e. Pleurochrysocystidia.
Ecology & distribution: Solitary to caespitose to connate, on decayed
gunny bag, in mixed forest vegetation. Known only from type locality.
The diagnostic features of Stropharia rubrobrunnea are the grayish red, reddish
brown to violet brown pileus, white stipe with a membranous grooved annulus,
and spores ≤10 µm long.
Recently, several Stropharia species have been described from the
neotropical region (Cortez & Coelho 2004, 2008, Bandala et al. 2005, Silva et
Stropharia rubrobrunnea sp. nov. (India) ... 217
Plate 3. Stropharia rubrobrunnea rhizomorph: a. Sphaerocytes along with
acanthocytes. b. Hyphae with clamp connections. c. Acanthocyte.
218 ... Senthilarasu & Singh
al. 2006, 2009, Cortez & Silveira 2007, 2008, Cortez 2008a,b) and China (Bau
& Meng 2008). Stropharia rubrobrunnea resembles the most common species
S. rugosoannulata (Cortez & Silveira 2008) in similar sized basidiomes.
Although the pileus colour in S. rugosoannulata is highly variable, it has a
yellowish brown stipe covered with brownish fibrils and larger basidiospores
(9.5–14.5 × 6.5–8 µm) and basidia (21–38 × 8–12 µm).
Stropharia coronilla (DC.) Quél. and S. araucariae Cortez & R.M. Silveira
(Cortez & Silveira 2008) also have a fleshy grooved annulus. Although
S. araucariae also has leptocystidia and chrysocystidia at the gill edge, it differs
from S. rubrobrunnea in its umbonate dark grayish brown pileus and larger
basidiospores (10.5–13 µm long). The basidiospore size (6.5–10.5 × 4.5–6.5
µm) in S. coronilla is similar to that in S. rubrobrunnea, but it is a grassland
inhabiting mushroom and differs morphologically in smaller basidiome size
(pileus = 16–55 mm diam.; stipe = 18–51 mm long), yellowish colored pileus,
and absence of cheilochrysocystidia.
The neotropical species S. venusta P.S. Silva et al., known only from Araucaria
angustifolia forests of southern Brazil (Silva et al. 2009), also somewhat
resembles S. rubrobrunnea in the larger basidiome size, grayish red to reddish
brown pileus, and rugulose annulus. However, S. venusta clearly differs in its
greenish grey colored stipe covered with scattered white squamules, larger
basidiospores (11–15 × 6–10 µm) and chrysocystidia (35–70 × 7–16 µm), and
absence of cheilochrysocystidia.
Stropharia variicolor Desjardin & Hemmes (Desjardin & Hemmes 2001)
and S. cifuentesii Bandala et al. (Bandala et al. 2005) with their reddish to
reddish brown colored pilei somewhat superficially resemble S. rubrobrunnea.
Stropharia variicolor also has similar sized basidiospores (6.5–9 × 4.5–5.7 µm)
but differs in smooth annulus, smaller cheiloleptocystidia (17.5–26 µm) that
lack a rostrum, and an absence of cheilochrysocystidia. Stropharia cifuentesii
clearly differs in its smaller basidiome size (pileus = 8–30 mm diam.; stipe =
9–37 mm long), fibrillose to squamulose pileus, whitish to yellowish brown
lamellae, more slender stipe, absence of a fleshy annulus, smaller spores (5.5–7
µm), and absence of cheilocystidia.
Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Vagner G. Cortez and Dr. Gastón Guzmán for critically reviewing
the manuscript. GS personally thanks Prof. V. Cortez, Dr. V. Kumaresan and Dr. CK
Pradeep for providing literature on Stropharia. We greatly acknowledge Dr. Shaun
Pennycook and Dr. Lorelei Norvell for presubmission reviews. Sincere thanks to the
Director, Agharkar Research Institute, for providing all laboratory facilities. We thank
the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi,
for providing financial support for the project National Facility for Culture Collection
of Fungi, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India.
Stropharia rubrobrunnea sp. nov. (India) ... 219
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