Tylostoma melanocyclum Bres. n. sp. :

Petri, L. 1904. Annales Mycologici 2(5): 415.

Peridio subgloboso, papyraceo, glabro, e pallido ochraceo albido, 8-13 mm diam. basi zona tomentosa, interdum obsoleta, brunnea, cincto, ore integro, mammoso, subcylindraceo, usque ad 1 mm prominulo et halone nigro circumdato ; stipite cavo, cartilagineo-sublignoso, subaequali vel sursum attenuato, primitus squamulis ochraceis obtecto, dein glabrescente et brunneo, 2-7 cm longo, 2-3 mm crasso, substantia alba; sporis ochraceo-aureis, globosis, echinulatis, 5-7 cura echinulis diam.; hyphis capillitii hyalinis, majoribus stramineis, plus minusve in articulos secedentibus, crasse tunicatis, 4-10 µm latis, extremitatibus vix incrassatis, ochraceis.

Hab. in agris glareosis "alle Giare" pr. Trento.

A Tylostomate squamoso (Gmel) Pers. exoperidio vix manifesto, ore halone nigro praedito, statura generatim minore et hyphis facilius in articulos secedentibus praecipue diversum. Hucusque ex agro tridentino et ex Hungaria (Hollós) mihi notum.

Wright J.E. 1987. Bibliotheca Mycologia 113: 149.

Tulostoma melanocyclum Bresadola (Fig. 95; Pls. XXVI: 1-2, 5;XXX:5) apud Petri, Ann. Mycol. 2: 415. 1904.

Etym.:The name refers to the usual character of the dark peristome.

Spore-sac relatively small, up to 10 mm diam, subglobose. Exoperidium hyphal, the threads agglutinated with sand grains. Endoperidium finally smooth, almost white to, more generally, somewhat cinereous, with some dark spots. Mouth tubular, with a lip ca. 1 mm diam, scarcely projecting but with the lip distinct, light-coloured, surrounded usually by a notoriously darker peristome (dark grey or dirty brownish). Socket not prominent, subscaly. Gleba ochraceous. Stem straw-coloured to dark brown, fistulose, ending basally in a prominent hyphal bulb mixed with sand particles, packed inwardly with silky fibrills, hardly squamulose, decorticating in large straps, or substriate to almost smooth, up to 30 x 2.5 mm.

Spores brownish, globose to subglobose, echinulate under L.M., with a thick episporium, 4.8-7.3 µm; under SEM the ornamentation appears as conic columns, more or less tall, formed by various elements fused at the apex, or verrucae somewhat elevated and anastomosed. Capillitium sub-hyaline, branched, septate; threads thick-walled, with visible to solid lumen, hardly swollen at the uncoloured, disjointable septa; 1.8-7.2 µm diam. Habitat: clayish soil with sand, amongst herbaceous vegetation.

Distribution: It is a typically European species, particularly Southern, although collections have been identified from North America and, with some doubt, from Asia and South America.

Holotype: Italy, "in glabrosis prope Tridentium", 1902, leg. Bresadola (K!).

Illustration: Pouzar (1958: figs. 218, 219 A).