Inocybe pallidicremea
Summary 2
With a stunning purple Inocybe pallidicremea is sure to capture your attention and your affections when hiking in mixed conifer habitats throughout the fall and winter. A member of Inocybe, a diverse and cryptic genus of mycorrhizal mushrooms that is often (unfortunately) avoided by amateur mycologists, this species is one of my favorite mushrooms that can be found in Coronado National Forest. With an otherworldly purple coloration and unique yellow-brown umbo that makes it look like a wizard hat when young, it stands out among the pale brown needle duff making it easy to spot despite its small size - although it soon fades towards a pale white color.
Inocybe pallidicremea is part of the Inocybe lilacina species complex and is morphologically very similar to other species in the complex, but DNA studies in the state indicate that we have Inocybe pallidicremea and perhaps another species that has yet to be circumscribed from the rest of the group. Another Inocybe known from nearby Colorado and the Northeastern U.S., I. sublilacinus, is almost morphologically identical to I. pallidicremea but can be told apart by its larger and more elliptical spores.
Basic Identification 2
Pileus/Cap: 2-4cm wide, conical to broadly convex (or nearly flat) with a distinct yellow-brown umbo, margin fibrous when young (cortina remnant) becoming somewhat rimose/striated with age; surface smooth at first becoming fibrillose, purple/lilac coloration fading to a pale fleshy color; context white, firm, and up to 3mm thick.
Lamellae/Gills: Adnate to notched, closely spaced and relatively broad, pallid at first becoming dull brown.
Stipe: 25-40mm tall and 3-6mm in width, mostly straight and equal thickness, hollow or stuffed with fibers, the same color as the cap or slightly paler. Fibrous partial veil (cortina) that fades quickly, sometimes leaving a sparse ring zone towards the apex of the stipe.
Spores: Dull brown.
Habitat/Ecology: Mycorrhizal under a variety of conifer species, fruiting from fall through winter.
Odor/Tase: Spermatic odor, mild flavor.
Similar taxa 2
Lepista nuda
Cortinarius sp.
Advanced Identification 2
Pileus 2-4 cm broad. campanulate and umbonate becoming expanded and strongly umbonate, then depressed around the umbo with margins arched and broadly rounded : surface appressed silky at the center, tending to become rimose at the margin; color pale yellow ("cream color"), the umbo occasionally with a slight flush of more brownish yellow; context white unchanging, odor spermatic.
Lamellae adnexed to narrowly adnate, emarginate, moderately broad (3-4 mm), pallid at first, then "snuff brown."
Stipe 3-4(-6) cm long, 2-4 mm thick, equal and cylindrical above the clavately bulbous base, usually hollow, context white or pallid, unchanging; surface glabrous, white pruinose at the apex, color pallid, in some tinged slightly with brownish or yellowish.
Spores 8-10(-11) x 5-5.5 μm, mostly 8-9 x 5 pm, inequilaterally amygdaliform; basidia 21-25.5 x 6.5-9 μm clavate. with four sterigmata; pleurocystidia 36-55 x 12-21 (-25.5) μm, mostly 45-51 x 13-16.5 μm, ventricose with narrowed base or short pedicel, no neck, thick walled (3-4.5 pm); edge of lamellae with clustered metuloids resembling the pleurocystidia but larger (up to 60 x 20 μm), plus thin-walled clavate to ventricose sterile cells 20-36 x 11-16.5 pin; lamellar trama parallel, compact, of hyphae 5-16 μm diameter consisting of cylindric to fusiform or clavate cells 4-16.5 μm diam. Apex of stipe with dense clusters of slender, elongated metuloids 6-90 X 10-16 pm with a few shorter,
thin-walled, clavate cells. Base of stipe with a layer of tangled superficial hyphae 5-16 pm in diameter, bearing a few cystidioid terminal cells, no dermatocaulocystidia present. Pileal surface two layered, the upper layer 65-132 μm thick, of colorless hyphae 4-11 μm in diameter, the lower third of them parallel to the pileal surface and compactly arranged, the upper two thirds more loosely arranged, sometimes parallel and radially oriented, sometimes loosely interwoven ; subtending the upper layer a zone 35-60 μm thick of subagglutinated hyphae with yellow-brown membrana pigment. Laticiferous hyphae present in the lamellar trama and tissue of the stipe.
Transcribed from: Grund, D.W. & Stuntz, D.E. (1977). Nova Scotian Inocybes. IV. Mycologia 69(2): 392-408. (Protologue)
References 2
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Grund, D.W. & Stuntz, D.E. (1977). Nova Scotian Inocybes. IV. Mycologia 69(2): 392-408. (Protologue)
Sources and Credits
- (c) Adam Bryant, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Adam Bryant
- (c) Spencer Wimmer, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
