| | The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
‘Earth Tongues’.
Anamorphic forms occurring (very varied, know from only a few taxa).
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing asci and ascospores; erect-elongate, unbranched (glabrous); capitate; clustered, or solitary; stipitate; tiny to small; in Leotia lubrica, 0.25–0.75 cm across; in Leotia lubrica, 1–6 cm high; brightly pigmented (often), or not brightly pigmented; dark purplish brown to dark brown, or blackish, or orange, or yellow, or green; apothecial; comprising a perithecioid structure enclosing asci and spores (and paraphyses), with no stroma; stromata absent. The asci cylindrical; asci inoperculate; with more or less conspicuous apical thickening; thin walled. The walls of the asci with a usually diffuse apical J+ ring. The ascospores ellipsoid, or elongate; hyaline; septate, or simple.
The hyphae without clamp connections. The hyphal walls lamellate, double layered, with both layers electron dense.
Ecology. Saprophytic (on herbaceous and woody tissue). The fruit-bodies borne on the ground, or on dead wood. In rich, wettish soils. Found in broad-leaved woodland and in mixed woodland.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. Leotia, Pezoloma, Pseudodiscinella, Sphagnicola.
World representation. 13 species; genera 3. “Widespread”.
Classification. Ascomycota; Ascomycetes; Leotiomycetidae; Helotiales.
Comments. Interascal tissue of simple paraphyses.
Illustrations. • Leotia lubrica (LH). • Leotia lubrica (Berkeley). LEOTIACEAE. 1, Leotia lubrica (Scop.) Pers. GEOGLOSSACEAE. 2, Trichoglossum hirsutum var. hirsutum (Pers.) Boud. PEZIZACEAE. 4, Peziza badia Pers.; 5, Peziza micropus Pers. MORCHELLACEAE. 6. Disciotis venosa var. reticulata (Grev.) Boud. BULGARIACEAE. 7, Bulgaria inquinans (Pers.) Fr. HELOTIALES incertis sedis. 3, Microglossum olivaceum (Pers.) Gillet. From Berkeley (1860).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2008 onwards. The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
