Hebeloma porphyrosporum (Photo: J. Vesterholt)

Taxonomy

Types: ALGERIA: Mount Bouzarea near Alger (approx. 36.5°N, 2.8°E, alt. approx. 155 m a.s.l.) under Pinus halepensis, 8 Mar. 1930, H. Foley, det: R. Maire (9905) (Holotype. held at herbarium MPU, HJB1000104).

Homotypic synonyms:

• Sarcoloma porphyrosporum (Maire) Locq., Flore Mycologique Vol III - Text. Cortinariales A: 146 (1979) ["1977"]

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upEtymology
  From Greek porphyro– purple and Latin sporus– spored, on account of the, in the European context, unusual purple-brown spores of this species.

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upOriginal diagnosis
  Carpophora valde caespitosa, haud hygrophana, sapor amariusculus; odor peculiaris; caro undique alba; sporae in cumulo purpureo-fuscae (K: 34; Ridgway 14-7’-RO-m). Stipes basi dilatato-bulbosus et cum vicinis concretus, plus minusve flexuosus, 5–7 cm longus, 8–12 mm crassus (in bulbo usque ad 2,5 cm), cum pileo confluens, fibroso-carnosus, farctus, siccus, usque ad apicem minute fibrilloso-squamulosus, albus. Cortina alba fugacissima e filamentis veli generalis contexta. Pileus 3–5 cm diam convexus, crassus, carnosus, firmus; cutis plus minusve secernibilis, viscosa, demum sicca, albida, disco rufo-ferrugineo suffusa, demum rufo-ferruginea albido-marginata; margo involutus, pruinoso-tomentosus, albus, excedens, crassiusculus. Lamellae confertae, tenues, cum pileo confluentes, ex arcuato ventricosae, antice adtenuatae, postice emarginato-adnatae, latiusculae (5 mm), ex incarnato-griseo purpureo-fuscae, acie alba pruinosa, lamellulae plus minusve adtenuatae l. subrotundatae. Lamellarum acie pilis filiformibus, leviter clavatis, usque a 6 μm crassis, heteromorpha; mediostratum regulare ex hyphis parallelis suaequalibus 5–8 μm diam. contextum; subhymenium ramosum tenue (= 1/3–1/2 hymenii); pilei cutis ex hyphis tenuibus in gelatina hyalina immersis, apice interdum subclavatis contexta; stipitis cutis ex hyphis elongatis parallelis in squamulis aggregatis contexta. Hyphae fibuligerae. Cystidia nulla. Basidia 4-sporigera, clavata, 30–35 x 7–9 μm. Sporae sub microscopio purpureo-ferrugineae, amygdaliformes, apice plus minusve papillatae, episporio crassiusculo indutae, dense verruculosae, binucleatae, 11–15 x 5–6 μm. Habitat ad terram acerosam sub Pinubus (Pinus halepensis L.) in mone Bouzarea prope Alger, februario et martio.

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upEnglish translation
  Basidiomes densely caespitose, not hygrophanous, with bitterish taste and peculiar odour; context white in all parts; spores in mass purple-brown. Stipe with bulbous base and confluent with neighbouring specimens, more or less flexuouse, 5–7 cm long, 8–12 mm broad (in bulb up to 2.5 cm), confluent with pileus, fibrous-fleshy, stuffed, dry, minutely fibrillose-squamulose up to apex, white. Cortina white, fugaceous, made up of remnants of the universal veil. Pileus 3–5 cm diam, convex, thick, cutis more or less separating, viscid then dry, white with centre tinged reddish-rusty, then reddish rusty all over with white margin; margin involute, pruinose-tomentose, white, exceeding the lamellae, thick. Lamellae crowded, thin, confluent with pileus, arcuate then ventricose, adnate at end, near stipe adnate-emarginate, somewhat broad (5 mm), flesh coloured then greyish-purple dark brown with white pruinose edge, lamellulae more or less adnate, slightly rounded. Lamella edge with filiform hairs, slightly clavate, up to 6 μm thick, heteromorphous; mediostratum regular, made up of subequal hyphae, 5–8 μm diam.; subhymenium ramose, thin (about 1/3–1/2 of hymenium); pileipellis made up of thin hyphae embedded in hyaline gelatine, apex sometimes subclavate; stipitipellis made up of parallel hyphae, clustered in squamules. Hyphae with clamp-connections. Cystidia absent. Basidia four-spored, clavate, 30–35 × 7–9 μm. Spores under microscope purple-rusty brown, amygdaloid, with more or less papillate apex; covered with thick, densely verrucose episporium, binucleate, 11–15 × 5–6 μm. On soil mixed with needles under pines (P. halepensis) on the mountain Bouzarea near Alger, February–March.

Description

Description of Hebeloma porphyrosporum based on 35 collections

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upMacroscopic description
  Pileus: (28) 37–54 (56) mm diameter; shape usually convex, occasionally weakly umbonate; characters occasionally spotting or remains of universal veil; margin characters often smooth, occasionally involute or scalloped; viscosity tacky when moist; colour variation usually two color, occasionally unicolour; colour at centre occasionally warm buff, pinkish buff, yellowish brown or dark pinkish buff.

  Lamellae: attachment emarginate, occasionally adnate; maximum depth 5–8 mm; number of complete lamellae 55–75; presence of tears often visible with x10 lens, occasionally absent or visible with naked eye; white fimbriate edge usually weak, rarely present.

  Cortina presence: usually no, rarely yes.

  Stipe: (35) 41–62 (70) x (6) 7–9 (12) {median} x 7–17 (25) {basal} mm; stipe Q 5.6–9.0; base shape usually clavate, often cylindrical, occasionally bulbous; floccosity occasionally pruinose at apex, fibrillose, floccose, none, pruinose or velute; rooting no; thick rhizoids at base absent;

  Context: Texture firm; stipe interior often hollow, occasionally stuffed; stipe flesh discolouring usually yes, occasionally no; slenderness measure 5.2–12.1; smell usually fruit, often soap, rarely odourless; taste often weakly bitter or mild where recorded.

  Spore deposit colour: often dark brick, occasionally umber.

  Exsiccata characters: Not recorded.

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upMicroscopic description
  Spores: shape amygdaloid, often limoniform; colour in microscope usually brown, occasionally yellow brown; guttules often yes, occasionally no or weak. papilla often weak, occasionally yes; Spore Code: O3 (O4); (P1) P2 P3; D3 D4.

  Basidia: 25–34 (35) x 6–9 μm; ave. Q 3.3–4.1; spore arrangement 4 spored;

  Cheilocystidia: main shape clavate-lageniform or clavate-ventricose, usually ventricose, often gently clavate or lageniform, occasionally cylindrical or clavate-stipitate, rarely capitate-stipitate or lentiform; special features observed often geniculate, occasionally clamped septa or septa, rarely rostrate, short, sparse or irregular; cheilocystidia ratios: A/M = 1.40–1.85; A/B = 0.84–1.47; B/M = 1.12–1.69.

  Pleurocystidia: none seen.

  Ixocutis: epicutis thickness (measured from exsiccata) up to 230 μm; ixocutis hyphae width up to 10 μm; ixocutis hyphae encrustation often yes, occasionally no; shape of trama elements beneath subcutis often angular, isodiametric or thickly sausage-shaped, occasionally cylindrical up to 20 μm wide.

  Caulocystidia: Similar to cheilocystidia but larger, up to 150 μm.

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upSpore measurements

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upCheilocystidia measurements

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upHabitat and distribution
  Where only one possible associate was recorded, the most commonly recorded associate was Quercus (73.7%) but Pinus (26.3%) were also recorded. In these cases the most commonly recorded families were Fagaceae (75.0%) and Pinaceae (25.0%). We have additional records where Cistus (14.8%), Castanea (7.4%), Abies (3.7%), Betula (3.7%), Fagus (3.7%) and Salix (3.7%) were recorded as possible associates, but in these cases a number of possible associates were mentioned. Overall the most commonly recorded families are Fagaceae (81.5%), Pinaceae (29.6%) and Cistaceae (14.8%) The growth habit of our collections was occasionally solitary, caespitose, gregarious or scattered.

  According to our current data, the species is found on multiple continents with collections found in Europe (78.8%), Temperate Asia (18.2%) and Africa (3.0%). On these continents, collections have been found only in the mediterranean forests, woodlands & scrub WWF biome The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have divided the world into 867 terrestrial ecoregions. The ecoregion here is estimated by mapping from the GPS coordinates of the collection using data made available by Dinerstein et al (2017). Use this webtool to explore the ecoregions visually or see a full list of current ecoregions on Wikipedia. (Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests (27.3%), Cyprus Mediterranean forests (15.2%), Southwest Iberian Mediterranean sclerophyllous and mixed forests (15.2%) and Illyrian deciduous forests (12.1%) ecoregions). From collector information, it appears collections have been found in the 1.4 Forest – Temperate (53.3%), 3.8 Shrubland – Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation (33.3%) and 14.5 Urban Areas (13.3%) IUCN habitats We map from the collector's description of the habitat to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s definition using a standardised set of rules. Please see this page for a full list of IUCN habitats..

  Within Europe we have records from the Southwest (France, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Croatia) and the Southeast (Italy and Croatia). Specimens have been collected from 37.8°N to 45.3°N.

  Within Temperate Asia we have records from Western Asia (Cyprus) and Caucasus (Adygea).

  Within Africa all our records are from Northern Africa (Algeria).

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upMolecular results
  Hebeloma porphyrosporum clearly belongs to the genus Hebeloma, but in Beker et al. (2016), it appeared rather isolated within the genus and its phylogenetic position was unresolved in the results of the analyses of single loci and the concatenated data. Published ITS sequences of H. vinosophyllum support a close relationship between H. porphyrosporum and H. vinosophyllum, as do published sequences of H. sarcophyllum from North America. In Eberhardt et al. (2020a), Hebeloma sect. Porphrospora was discussed in detail and a number of species included that are known only from the western Pacific Rim.

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upCommentary
  Given the colour of the lamellae in fresh material (reminiscent of an Entoloma) and the colour of the spore print, this species must certainly belong to H. sect. Porphyrospora. As far as we are currently aware, it is the only member of this section that is present in Europe. But, when examining older material one must be wary, as the colour of the lamellae fades to brown with time and the spore print also loses its reddish hue, although in mass the spores retain a purplish brown colour for some time, in contrast to the brownish olive or umber spore print of most Hebeloma species. Hebeloma porphyrosporum shares some morphological features with H. sarcophyllum Peck (described from North America) and H. vinosophyllum Hongo (described from Japan). Both of these taxa have similarly coloured lamellae and spores. We have morphologically examined type material of both these taxa. They are clearly closely related. Josserand & Smith (1941) argued that H. porphyrosporum and H. sarcophyllum should be considered synonyms. They acknowledged that there were differences: the pileus of H. sarcophyllum was described by Peck as chalk white, while the centre of the pileus of H. porphyrosporum was described as rusty red, although paler specimens did exist; that Peck (1872) had described H. sarcophyllum as without cortina, while H. porphyrosporum was originally described by Maire as having a cortina, albeit fugacious; the spores of Peck’s type measured 7–9 (10) × 4–5 μm, while Maire had described the spores of his type to be 11–15 × 5–6 μm. Their argument was that the colour difference was not significant and could arise from ecological and habitat differences, that the presence or absence of a cortina was also influenced by local conditions and that Maire had probably overestimated the spore size of his collection and in any case within North America they had seen material of this taxon with larger spores, more akin to those of the European collection. This synonymy has been accepted within Europe, see for example Vesterholt (2005), and, indeed, most European field guides that include this taxon. However, it should be noted that Grilli (2008) did expresssome doubts with regard to this synonymy. With regard to the colour of the pileus, we have not yet examined enough material to have a view and with regard to the cortina, we have seen collections with and without veil remnants, which might be variously interpreted by different authors, so it is probably not a consistent and reliable character. However, we do see a significant difference in the spores of the two types. We have measured the spores of the holotype of H. porphyrosporum as, on average, 10.9 × 6.3 μm and across our 14 collections of this taxon we have averages in the range 10.3–12.1 × 6.1–6.9 μm. Our average measurements for the holotype of H. sarcophyllum were 9.4 × 5.5 μm and these spores were far less dextrinoid than those of H. porphyrosporum. Interestingly, the spores of H. sarcophyllum resembled more closely those of H. vinosophyllum, which measured on average 9.7 × 5.6 μm, and the dextrinoidity of which was far closer to that of H. sarcophyllum. At this point we have not studied sufficient material of either H. sarcophyllum or H. vinosophyllum to have a view with regard to these non-European taxa, but we do have molecular evidence that H. vinosophyllum is a distinct species from H. porphyrosporum. We do not accept the synonymy between H. porphyrosporum and H. sarcophyllum and, hence, use the European name of Maire for this taxon.

Geographic distribution

Phenology

• arrow_drop_downarrow_drop_upAdditional cited collections

Image gallery