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Cortinarius archeri
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Cortinariaceae
Genus: Cortinarius
Species:
C. archeri
Binomial name
Cortinarius archeri
Berk. (1860)
Synonyms[1]

Gomphos archeri (Berk.) Kuntze (1891)
Myxacium archeri (Berk.) Y.S.Chang & Kantvilas (1993)

Cortinarius archeri is a species of mushroom in the genus Cortinarius native to Australia. The distinctive mushrooms have bright purple caps that glisten with slime, and appear in autumn in eucalypt forests.

Taxonomy[edit]

English clergyman Miles Joseph Berkeley described Cortinarius archeri in 1860 from a specimen collected in Cheshunt, Tasmania in April 1856.[2] The species name honours the collector—naturalist William Archer, who was the secretary of the Royal Society of Tasmania.[3]

In 1891, the German botanist Otto Kuntze published Revisio generum plantarum, his response to what he perceived as poor method in existing nomenclatural practice.[4] He called the species Gomphos archeri, citing the genus Gomphos as described by Giovanni Antonio Battarra in 1755 taking precedence over Cortinarius.[5] However, Kuntze's revisionary programme was not accepted by the majority of botanists.[4]

Within the genus, Cortinarius archeri belongs to the subgenus Myxacium, whose mushroom caps and stipes are covered with a layer of glutinous slime. Moser and Horak made it the type species of Cortinarius (Myx.) section Archeriani in 1975.[6] In 1990, Austrian mycologist Egon Horak placed it in group D of the subgenus, several species with mushrooms that are purple or blue when young.[7] In 2007, Italian mycologist Bruno Gasparini placed C. archeri and the Archeriani (which he reclassified as a subsection) into the subgenus Phlegmacium, which have sticky or glutinous caps but not stipes. He conceded the subgenera as classically understood were likely to be untenable and require overhauling.[8] In 2004, Peintner and colleagues placed the Archeri group in a clade they named /Delibuti, which was related to the Phlegmacium clade, though C. archeri was not itself sampled in this genetic study.[9] A 2005 molecular study of the genus by Sigisfredo Garnica and colleagues was unable to place C. archeri in a clade with confidence, though showed its affinity with C. sinapicolor.[10]

Australian naturalist John Burton Cleland described Cortinarius jxjxnxnxxnsubarcheri in 1928 from a collection under brown stringybark (Eucalyptus baxteri) in Bundaleer State Forest in the Mount Lofty Ranges. He distinguished it from C. archeri by its smaller spores (9–10 x 4.5–5.5 μm) and mushrooms.[11] This taxon is poorly known and it is unclear whether it is distinct from C. archeri.[7]

Description[edit]

The cap is up to 10 cm (4 in) broad, initially convex with strongly incurved margins before flattening out with age. The centre of the cap may have a central boss.[12] The cap colour is deep violet at first and then becomes violet-brown with age, glutinous, and smooth. The flesh is thick and tinted lavender. The gills are brown and tinted lilac-violet. The stipe is 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) long, cylindrical, often swollen at the base, pale lilac above the cortina and deep violet below it. The spores are brown and fruit bodies will produce a brown spore print. The species has no odor,[13] and a mild taste.[7] When C. archeri is young, they have a cortina, but it is flimsy and tears apart as the cap expands which is why there are few traces of it on fully mature specimens.

Distribution and habitat[edit]

The purple colour fades to brownish over time

One of the commonest webcaps of southern Australia,[8] Cortinarius archeri is distributed from Queensland, through to South Australia and Western Australia.[7] Around Sydney it has been found in Oatley, Howes Valley and Tari Creek in Windsor,[7] as well as Boronia Park.[14] It is regularly seen in the Lane Cove National Park, especially around North Ryde.[citation needed] In Victoria, the species is at Morwell National Park.[15] This is the only Cortinarius species that was found in the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria's first fungi foray to Coranderrk Bush Sanctuary.[16] It is found in the Mount Lofty Ranges east of Adelaide in South Australia.[3] It has been found at Mundaring in Western Australia.[7] In Tasmania, it has been recorded from the wet forests, dry forests and cleared areas,[17] from Mount Wellington and Mount Field National Parks, as well as Bruny Island.[8]

The species was found during the 15th New Zealand Fungal Foray at the New Zealand Fungal Herbarium.[18]

The species is common in eucalypt or mixed forests and is mycorrhizal, forms a close relationship with the roots of eucalypts or closely related trees. Although considered solitary, the mushroom can commonly be found in groups of two or three,[13] often poking up through bark and leaf litter on the ground.[19] It can thrive in recently burnt forests and can also be found in suburban lawns.[20]

Edibility[edit]

The edibility of Cortinarius archeri is unknown. Cortinarius is a large and potentially confusing genus with a number of dangerously poisonous species, so they are generally not regarded as safe edible mushrooms.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Cortinarius archeri Berk. 1860". MycoBank. International Mycological Association. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  2. ^ Berkley MJ (1860). Hooker JD (ed.). The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. discovery ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843 :under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross III. Vol. 2. London, United Kingdom: Reeve Brothers. p. 247.
  3. ^ a b Cleland JB (1976) [1934]. Toadstools and Mushrooms and Other Larger Fungi of South Australia. Adelaide, South Australia: South Australian Government Printer. p. 111.
  4. ^ a b Erickson RF. "Kuntze, Otto (1843–1907)". Botanicus.org. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  5. ^ Kuntze O. (1891). Revisio generum plantarum:vascularium omnium atque cellularium multarum secundum leges nomenclaturae internationales cum enumeratione plantarum exoticarum in itinere mundi collectarum (in Latin). Vol. 2. Leipzig, Germany: A. Felix. p. 853.
  6. ^ Moser M, Horak E (1975). "Cortinarius Fr. und nahe verwandte Gattungen in Südamerika". Nova Hedwigia, Beihefte. 52: 1–628 [243].
  7. ^ a b c d e f Horak E, Wood AE (1990). "Cortinarius Fr. (Agaricales) in Australasia. 1. Subgen. Myxacium and subgen. Paramyxacium" (PDF). Sydowia. 42: 88–168 [120–22].
  8. ^ a b c Gasparini B (2007). "Genus Cortinarius, subgenus Phlegmacium in Tasmania". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 45 (1): 155–236. doi:10.1080/00288250709509711.
  9. ^ Peintner U, Moncalvo JM, Vilgalys R (2004). "Toward a better understanding of the infrageneric relationships in Cortinarius (Agaricales, Basidiomycota)". Mycologia. 96 (3): 1042–1058. doi:10.2307/3762088. JSTOR 3762088. PMID 21148925. Open access icon
  10. ^ Garnica S, Weiß M, Oertel B, Oberwinkler F (2005). "A framework for a phylogenetic classification in the genus Cortinarius (Basidiomycota, Agaricales) derived from morphological and molecular data". Canadian Journal of Botany. 83 (11): 1457–77. doi:10.1139/b05-107.
  11. ^ Cleland JB (1928). "Australian fungi: notes and descriptions. – No. 7". Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia. 52: 217–22.
  12. ^ Bougher NL, Syme K (1998). Fungi of Southern Australia. Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-875560-80-6.
  13. ^ a b Young A, Smith K (2005). A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. UNSW Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-86840-742-5.
  14. ^ "Boronia Park Plants – Part 3". Friends of Boronia Park. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  15. ^ "Fungus list". Morwell National Park Online. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  16. ^ "FNCV Fungal Group Foray" (PDF). FNCV. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  17. ^ Ratkowsky DA, Gates GM (2005). "An inventory of macrofungi observed in Tasmanian forests over a six-year period" (PDF). Tasforests. 16: 153–68. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  18. ^ "Species collected during the 15th New Zealand Fungal Foray, Tuai". Landcare Research. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  19. ^ Willis JH (2014). Victorian Toadstools and Mushrooms – A Key and Descriptive Notes to 120 Different Gilled Fungi, With Remarks on Several Other Families of the Higher Fungi. Read Books. p. 42. ISBN 9781473392564.
  20. ^ "Cortinarius archeri". Blueswami. Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2010.

External links[edit]

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