Public Note:
[RM] PILEUS: 0.5-3.5 cm diam., strongly convex when young, convex to plano-convex at maturity, typically umbonate, hygrophanous, nonviscid, innately radially fibrillose, ends of fibrils often reflexed giving pileus a finely scurfy appearance in centre, aggregated towards margins, background colour buff with faint violaceous tints, fibrils dark brown to brownish black in centre, paling towards margins, margins often dentate to lacerate with age. Cuticle composed of unspecialised, repent, interwoven, thin-walled, clamped hyphae 7-13 um diam. with dark brown contents and often roughened walls near surface. LAMELLAE: adnexed to adnate, distant, intermixed, thick, to 5 mm deep, pallid violaceous, often turning buff with age, glaucous. STIPE: 2-7 cm long, ± equal or slightly expanded basally, 1.5-3 mm diam., tough, dry, hollow, longitudinally fibrillose-striate, pallid, violaceous when young, becoming buff from base upwards at maturity, finally entirely buff except for violaceous tints at extreme apex; flesh concolorous with exterior; basal mycelium pallid violaceous. SPORES : spore print white when fresh; spores globose to subglobose, rarely broadly elliptical, apiculate, hyaline, inamyloid, coarsely echinulate, 10—12.5—(13.5) um diam. including spines, spines 1.5—2.5 um long. HYMENIUM: basidia hyaline, clavate, 35-53 X 10-13.5 um, 4-spored, sterigmata to 9.5 um long; paraphyses simple or irregularly and sparingly branched apically. HYMENOPHORAL TRAMA: regular, composed
of tinted, parallel-interwoven, long-celled hyphae; clamp connections present. CONTEXT OF PILEUS: thin, pallid, violaceous, turning buff at maturity. SMELL AND TASTE: not distinctive. CHEMICAL CHARACTERS: unknown. Notes: Laccaria fibrillosa is one of the two species described by Stevenson (1964) under L. masonii, and is characterised by the typically umbonate pileus covered with dark, radially arranged fibrils. The conspicuous violaceous colour of young fructifications rapidly disappears with age. L. fibrillosa is found in Nothofagus dominated habitats. [GM] Pileipellis composed of ± parallel, radially arranged hyphae covering disc, separating toward margin, yielding an appearance similar to spokes of a wheel; hyphal elements (N = 10) 33-60 x 6-10 um; cells barrelshaped; walls up to 0.5um thick, light yellowish brown; contents dark brown in mass. Pileus trama tightly interwoven, morphologically undifferentiated, hyaline to light yellowish brown. Lamellar trama parallel to subparallel; hyphae 2.5-9 um diam., thin-walled, hyaline to light yellowish
brown; cells barrel-shaped. Subhymenium morphologically undifferentiated. Basidia (N = 15) 38.5-60 x 9-14 um, clavate, hyaline; sterigmata 4, up to 7.5 ixm long. Pleurocystidia lacking. Cheilocystidia not observed. Basidiospores (excluding ornamentation) (N = 30) 7-8.7 x 7-8.7 um (x = 8.9 ± 0.6 x 8.8 ± 0.6 um), Q = 1-1.12 (Q = 1.02 ± 0.04), globose to subglobose, hyaline, strongly echinulate; echinulae (1.4-)1.8-2.3(-2.8) um long,
not crowded; hilar appendix 1.4-2 um long, prominent, truncate; plage present; contents usually uniguttulate. Basal mycelium hyphae mostly 2.5- 9 um diam., morphologically undifferentiated, tightly interwoven, hyaline.COMMENTARY—McNabb (1972) reported that the pileipellis was "composed of unspecialized,
repent, interwoven, thin-walled, clamped hyphae. . . . " This discrepancy may be due to poor rehydration in the material I examined. In longitudinal section, the arrangement of pileipellis hyphae was not discernible, so the data presented here were based on a whole mount of a scalp section. Owing to PDD policy, only half of the type collection was sent on loan. The possibility exists that more variation is present in the entire type
collection than is described above. Two taxa were included in Stevenson's (1964) original description and illustration of L. masonii. The type collection consists entirely of basidiomata with glabrous pilei and the epithet L. masonii is restricted to that circumscription. McNabb (1972) proposed L. fibrillosa to represent the other taxon included in the protologue. [JAC] A single NZ clade contains all the lilac gilled species (masonii, fibrillosa violaceoniger, lilacina). Although seemingly distinct, recent collections suggest there is in fact a continuum from the fibrillosa morphology to the masoniae morphology and that is more or less supported by sequences. This clade also contains a separate group with the fibrillosa morphology. The macro/micro differences between masoniae/fibrillosa and fibrillosa groups are not settled. An examined masoniae-fibrillosa collection has some brown gill edges and brown vesicular cheilocystidia and caulocystidia, which are not present in the separate fibrillosa clade. It seems McNabb's selected a collection fitting the separate clade. This material reviving poorly. Without cystidia. 4-spored. Clamped. Without brown gill edge or brown cheilocystidia. Spores length=7.9–10.0µm (µ=8.9, σ=0.49), width=7.8–8.9µm (µ=8.3, σ=0.26), Q=0.9–1.2µm (µ=1.07, σ=0.06), n=22, none ovoid. Spines to 3 x 1um. The material examined by Muller appears to have packets swapped between L. fibrillosa and L. masonii var. brevisporina, although the collections look macro-morphologically correct (according to remaining isotype material correctly labelled).
J.A. Cooper, 19/12/2014