Psilocybe velifera (Favre) Singer, Agar. mod. taxon. 4. edn.: 572. 1986.

macroscopy:

Pileus up to 16 mm, conico-convex to convex with deflexed margin, fleshy, particularly at centre, hygrophanous, slightly translucently striate at margin in water-soaked specimens, deep ochre-brown when moist, slightly viscid, pallescent on d rying to beige, shining.Veil present during a long time in form of white flocks at margin of pileus. Lamellae, L = 18-27, l = 1-3, moderately crowded, adnate to decurrent, up to 3.5 mm, thin, deep brown, not purplish, paler towards white, fimbriate-serrate edge. Stipe up to 30 x 3-3.5 mm, equal, stuffed then fistulose, flocculose in young specimens then densely white fibrillose, pale, almost white at apex, brown below, dark grey-brown at base. Partial veil covering the young lamellae as a membranaceous, whitish structure, which leaves flocks at pileal margin, and rarely also a small ring at stipe when mature. Context grey-brown in the moist pileus, then beige on drying, beige in apex of stipe, dark grey-brown in base of stipe. Smell and taste indistinct. Spores purple when on sterigmata, but ochre-brown in water. Spore print color not known.

microscopy:

Spores 7.0-9.0 x 4.0-5.5 x 4.0-5.5, average 7.7-8.0 x 4.8 x 4.8 µm, slightly flattened, ovoid to submitriform, sometimes almost limoniform in frontal view, Qf = 1.4-1.6-1.8, ellipsoid-oblong, often somewhat amygdaliform or with almost papillate apex in side-view, Qs = 1.45-1.7-1.8, moderately thick-walled, yellow-brown in ammonia, with distinct, often fairly large germ-pore. Basidia 17-22 x 4.0-7.0 µm, 4-spored, clamped. Lamella edge sterile. Cheilocystidia 21-37 x 4.0-7.0 µm, Q = 3.9-5.9-7.8, with subacute to blunt, 1.5-3.0 µm wide apex, thin-walled. Pleurocystidia absent. Hymenophoral trama regular, made up of inflated elements, 15-57(-90) x 4.0-13.5 µm with smooth walls. Pileipellis a cutis of cylindrical hyphae, 2.0-5.0 µm wide, not clearly separated from subpellis; subpellis made up of chains of short, inflated elements, 17-74(-90) x 4.0-12 µm, gradually passing into pilietrama. Pileitrama subregular, made up of inflated elements, 20-120 x 3.0-15 µm. Pigment yellow-brown, membranal and finely incrusting in subpellis and upper pileitrama. Stipitipellis a cutis of 1.5-4.5 µm wide cylindrical hyphae. Clamp-connections present.

ecology:

in tussocks of living Carex in subalpine marsh.

distribution:

poorly known: probably confined to the Alps.

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