''Leucocoprinus thoenii'' is a species of mushroom producing fungus in the family Agaricaceae.

Taxonomy

It was first described in 1977 by the Belgian mycologist Paul Heinemann who classified it as ''Leucocoprinus thoenii.'' Heinemann notes that this species may be the same as ''Lepiota elongata'' which the Belgian mycologist

Maurice Beeli Maurice Philippe Gaspard Beeli (21 October 1879, St-Gilles-lez-Bruxelles – 17 March 1957) was a Belgian mycologist. For more than thirty years, being encouraged by Émile De Wildeman and Walter Robyns, successive directors of the National Bo ...

had annotated an illustration with but never formally classified.

Description

''Leucocoprinus'' ''thoenii'' is a small yellow dapperling mushroom. Heinemann provided only a basic description of the features species based on a dried specimen provided by D. Thoen and an observation logged with the

Meise Botanic Garden The Meise Botanic Garden ( nl, Plantentuin Meise, french: Jardin botanique de Meise), until 2014 called the National Botanic Garden of Belgium ( nl, Nationale Plantentuin van België, french: Jardin Botanique National de Belgique), is a botani ...

by M. Goossens-Fontana in 1939 which Beeli had annotated with a suggested name. Cap: Entirely yellow and bulbous at first, expanding and spreading out as it matures. It is covered in small scales (furfuraceous) and striated at the edges of the cap to around three quarters of the way up. Gills: Free, collared. Light ochre upon drying. Stem: Slender and also furfuraceous. Spores: Amygdaliform. 11.4-16 x 8.4-10 μm. The mushroom is described as drying brown.

Habitat and distribution

''L. thoenii'' is scarcely recorded and little known. GBIF records only two observations of this species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with one at Binga in 1939 and the other at Kipopo in 1973.

Similar species

Due to the lack of documentation and study of this species it is possible that in time it may be classified a synonym for another similar looking '' Leucocoprinus'' species. A 1982 study conducted at the University of Michigan by the mycologists Helen Vandervort Smith and Nancy S. Weber noted that ''L. thoenii'' is similar to Leucocoprinus magnicystidosus and ''

Leucocoprinus fragilissimus ''Leucocoprinus fragilissimus'', commonly known as the fragile dapperling, is a species of gilled mushroom in the family Agaricaceae. Taxonomy As with many of the most well known ''Leucocoprinus'' species the taxonomic history of this species i ...

'' but has larger spores and differences in cellular features.

Etymology

The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''thoenii'' is named for D. Thoen.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107990525 Leucocoprinus Fungi described in 1977 Fungi of Africa Taxa named by Paul Heinemann Fungus species