''Mycena clariviolacea'' is a
mushroom
A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans.
The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...
in the family
Mycenaceae
The Mycenaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. According to the ''Dictionary of the Fungi'' (10th edition, 2008), the family contains 10 genera and 705 species. This is one of several families that were separated from the Tricholom ...
.
[ First reported as a new species in 2007, it is known only from Kanagawa, Japan, where it fruits on dead fallen twigs in forests dominated by ]oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
and chinquapin trees. Distinctive features of this species are found in its medium-sized, dark violet fruit bodies
The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...
, with caps up to in diameter and slender stems that are about long. Microscopic characteristics include the amyloid spore
In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...
s (staining when treated with Melzer's reagent), the club-shaped cheilocystidia ( cystidia on the gill edge) that are covered with one or more, knob-like, apical protuberances, the absence of pleurocystidia (cystidia on the gill face), and the cylindrical, diverticulate caulocystidia (cystidia on the stem).
Taxonomy, naming, and classification
The mushroom was first collected by Japanese mycologist Haruki Takahashi in 2000, and, along with seven other ''Mycena'' species, was reported as a new species in a 2007 publication. 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 ...
is derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
words ''clari-'' (meaning "clear") and ''violacea'' ("