''Porpolomopsis lewelliniae'', commonly known as the mauve splitting wax-cap, is a
gilled fungus
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...
of the
waxcap
''Hygrocybe'' is a genus of agarics (gilled fungi) in the family Hygrophoraceae. Called waxcaps in English (sometimes waxy caps in North America), basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are often brightly coloured and have dry to waxy caps, white spores, an ...
family found in wet forests of eastern Australia and New Zealand. The small mauve- or lilac-coloured mushrooms are fairly common and appear in moss or leaf litter on the forest floor in autumn, and are biotrophic. The key distinguishing feature is the splitting of the cap dividing down the middle of the individual gills.
Taxonomy
It was initially described as ''Hygrophorus lewelliniae'' by Hungarian mycologist
Károly Kalchbrenner
Károly Kalchbrenner (born 5 May 1807 in Pöttelsdorf, died 5 June 1886 in Spišské Vlachy) was a Hungarian mycologist. He trained in theology early in life and became a priest in Spišské Vlachy, north-eastern Slovakia. His contributions inc ...
in 1882,
and later as ''Hygrocybe lewelliniae'' by Brittlebank in 1940, before being placed in the genus ''
Humidicutis
''Humidicutis'' is a small genus of brightly coloured agarics, the majority of which are found in Eastern Australia. They were previously described as members of ''Hygrocybe''. The genus ''Porpolomopsis'' is closely related, and the species in it ...
'' by Australian mycologist
Tony Young in 1997.
Kalchbrenner named this species in honour of the collector of the type specimen,
Madeline Lewellin. A molecular phylogenetics study found it to be more closely related to the type species of the genus ''
Porpolomopsis
''Porpolomopsis'' is a genus of fungi in the family Hygrophoraceae. It was circumscribed in 2008 by Andreas Bresinsky to contain '' P. calyptriformis''. Bresinsky separated it from the genus ''Hygrocybe'' based on its color and the absence ...
'', ''
Porpolomopsis calyptriformis
''Porpolomopsis calyptriformis'' is a species of agaric (gilled mushroom) in the family Hygrophoraceae. It has been given the recommended English name of Pink Waxcap. The species has a European distribution, occurring mainly in agriculturally un ...
'' so it was transferred to ''Porpolomopsis''.
The original
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
specimen had been collected on 14 June 1880 in the vicinity of
Western Port in Victoria by a Miss M.R. Lewellin and sent by
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...
to Kalchbrenner in Budapest. It was likely destroyed in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
[Young, p. 9] although a watercolour of it by the collector survives and is located in the
National Herbarium of Victoria. It has been compared with collections made by
E. J. H. Corner
Edred John Henry Corner FRS (12 January 1906 – 14 September 1996) was an English mycologist and botanist who occupied the posts of assistant director at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (1929–1946) and Professor of Tropical Botany at the Univ ...
of a ''Mycena rimosacuta'' in
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
and found to be the same species.
It may be that ''
Humidicutis mavis'' is merely a white-coloured form of this species.
[
]
Description
The mauve splitting waxcap is a small mushroom with an umbonate cap 3–6.5 centimetres (1–2 in) in diameter, initially conical and later flattening to almost flat. It is smooth and mauve or lilac in colour with a greyish boss. The cap is textured with radial fibres, along which it may split, with the gills dividing between the split. The lilac stipe is 3–7 cm (1–2 in) high and 0.4–0.8 cm thick and may be tinged yellow at the base. The lilac gills are adnexed or free, and thick or distant with even margins. The spore print is white and the hyaline
A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from el, ὑάλινος, translit=hyálinos, lit=transparent, and el, ὕαλος, translit=hýalos, lit=crystal, glass, label=none.
Histopathology
Hyaline cartilage is ...
spores are more or less oval, measuring around 5.5 x 9 μm
The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...
.[
]
Distribution and habitat
Saprotrophic, this species is fairly common.sclerophyll forest
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
or rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
in temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
, subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
or tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
climates. It also appears in sandy areas.New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Victoria and Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, as well as New Zealand and from Mount Kinabalu
Mount Kinabalu ( ms, Gunung Kinabalu, Dusun language, Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu'') is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of , it is List of islands by highest point, third-highest peak of an island on Eart ...
in Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...
. Although not recorded from North Queensland, it is predicted to occur there.[
]
References
Cited text
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5940819
Hygrophoraceae
Fungi native to Australia
Fungi of New Zealand
Fungi of Asia