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Identification of the Larger Fungi. Roy Watling
when mature consistency (whether fleshy, stringy, cartilaginous, leathery or woody) surface characters (whether fibrillose, dry, viscid, scaly or smooth) characters of stem-base Veil, if present characters Volva, if present characters Ring, if present whether single or double whether membranous or filamentous whether persistent, fugacious or mobile whether thick or thin whether apical, median or basal FLESH colour in cap: when wet when dry colour in stem: when wet when dry colour changes if any when exposed to air presence or absence of milk-like or coloured fluid (note: colour when exuded on fruit-body immediately and after some time and when dabbed on to a clean cloth or paper handkerchief and exposed to the air). SMELL before and after cutting —relate to a common every day odour MICROSCOPIC CHARACTERS BASIDIOSPORES colour in mass colour under microscope. shape size type of ornamentation, if any size and shape of germ-pore, if present iodine reaction of spore-mass:—blue-black to dark violet (amyloid); red-purple (dextrinoid); yellow-brown or brown (non-amyloid) BASIDIA number of sterigmata CAP-FLESH type of constituent cells GILL-TISSUE type and arrangement of cells between adjacent hymenial faces CAP-SURFACE type of cells composing the outermost layer—whether filaments or rounded cells STERILE CELLS—CYSTIDIA presence or absence of sterile cells:— on gill-edge on gill-margin on cap on stem shape, estimation of size, thick or thin-walled, hyaline or not types of ornamentation, etc.
Key to the major classes of Larger Fungi
Spores borne externally on stalks on a clavate to cylindrical cell Basidiomycotina
Spores produced within a clavate, cylindrical or subglobose cell Ascomycotina
Key to major groups based on character of basidium and fruit-body shape
1. Basidia either produced in a hymenium or in a mass, and until maturity contained within a closed fruit-body Gasteromycetes
Basidia produced in a layer of cells (hymenium) and exposed to the air before the maturity of the spores (Hymenomycetes) 2
2. Basidia simple, a single cell (fig. 5) (Homobasidiae) 3
Basidia usually septate, or if simple then fruit-body gelatinous and often collapsing to form a skin when dried (Heterobasidiae) 4
3. Fruit-body usually fleshy, soft and easily decaying (putrescent), hymenium spread over the surface of gills, ridges or within tubes Agaricales (p. 22)
Fruit-body with hymenium smooth or spread-out on teeth, ridges or plates or if within tubes then fruit-body tough and leathery Aphyllophorales (p. 135)
4. Basidia divided 5
Basidia simple and apex drawn out into two long necks Plate 61 (p. 185) Dacrymycetales (p. 180)
5. Basidia divided transversely by one to three horizontal septae Plate 60 (p. 183) Auriculariales (p. 182)
Basidia divided into two or four cells by vertical septae Plate 61 (p. 185) Tremellales (p. 184)
A. AGARICS AND THEIR RELATIVES
Key to major genera
1. Spores distinctly coloured in mass and coloured individually under the microscope 2
Spores not, or faintly, coloured in mass and hyaline under the microscope 25
2. Spores blackish or some shade of brown 8
Spores pinkish 3
3. Stem laterally attached to the cap or absent Claudopus (and some species of Clitopilus)
Stem centrally attached to the cap 4
4. Stem with a cup-like structure enveloping the base Volvariella
Stem