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"I"nocybes, and More!


Dave W

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But not much more.

This is not to say "I" is uninteresting. In fact, it's the genus Inocybe that adds the most color and character to the letter.

But first, a few common mushrooms, fairly easily IDed. All three represent examples of split-offs from older larger genera (larger, for the time being, that is). Imleria badia used to be Boletus badius. This is an edible bolete that bruises slate-blue, mostly on the pores. It's a conifer-lover.

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Infundibulicybe is split-off from Clitocybe. The two species I know are virtually identical to the eye, and are field-separated on the basis of whether associated trees are hardwood or conifer. Infundibulicybe gibba, the "Funnel Clitocybe", is a hardwood associate.

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Infundibulicybe squamulosa is a conifer associate, and has reportedly smaller spores than its hardwood counterpart.

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Inocybes are small mostly brownish bad-smelling toxic mushrooms. Can't wait to find some, right :-) Actually, Inocybes can be photogenic little creatures. And, there are striking micro-characters that an amateur can access using only a decent 400x microscope and a few easily obtained solutions. But ID to species within this genus is usually perplexing. I have sent preserved collections to an amateur mycologist who'se conducting his own DNA analysis within the genus. He has provided a few species names, and has come across at least one which appears to represent an unnamed species.

Spore shape can be "nodular" --unique to the genus, as far as I can tell-- or bean-shaped, or almost elliptical. Size varies among the many species.

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And some types feature large prominent cystidia crowned by crystal-encrusted caps.

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I have applied species names to collections over the years. But Inocybe mushrooms provide a great illustration of how it's sometimes true that, the more one knows the less one believes they know. For instance, the shiny little golden yellow haystacks I had once called "fastigiata", well I've examined such collections that had nodular spores, and other collections that had the bean-shaped ones. Seems clear that the shiny yellow radially-streaked "Fiber Heads" fall into at least two different species.

So, let's just call all the ones in the next bunch "Inocybe".

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Sometimes I still believe that I can apply a species name for an Inocybe. The white ones fall into a species, or maybe group of species, called Inocybe geophylla.

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And, courtesy of Linas Kudzma's molecular and microscopic assistance, here's Inocybe rimosoides.

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A polypore. Ischnoderma resinosum first appears as a softish brown and white shelf fungus that exudes little dark drops of "resin" and has a velvety appearance on the darker upper surface. It becomes hard and flatter as it matures.

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And finally, not sure what to call this fungus... actually, I do know. It's Chaga. Inonotus obliquus.

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