images/Leucoagaricus_leucothites_group/Leucoagaricus_naucinusDSCN4333.jpg
Medium to very large agaric, growing on the ground or in litter or mulch, with a white, cream to yellow or pale pink spore print. Pileus white, pale or grey, rarely brown, surface smooth or with fine squamules, not viscid. Lamellae remote or free. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants a membranous annulus. Spores hyaline, dextrinoid, smooth; with narrow germ pore. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis or a trichoderm. Clamp connections absent.
Other species of
Leucoagaricus have a more marked fibrillose surface to the pileus, and often stain bright red, as does
Chlorophyllum hortense. Fruit-bodies are rather similar to
Agaricus in the field, except for the white lamellae. Young specimens of
Agaricus can have quite pale lamellae, but the spore print is dark brown. Species of
Leucocoprinus with a white pileus are smaller and have a distinctly plicate pileus margin. Specimens of
Limacella, where the pileus has dried (and the viscid surface is no longer evident), can key out here, but they differ in the inverse lamellar trama and non-amyloid spores without a germ pore, and in
Limacella an annulus is often lacking.
One or a few species:
Leucoagaricus leucothites (=
L. naucinus,
L. subcretaceus and
L. cinerascens as applied by some authors) and
L. ooliekirrus, which is close to
L. leucothites, and possibly a synonym. The
Leucoagaricus leucothites group is keyed out separately because of the rather smooth pileus, which is typically white or pale brown.
Leucoagaricus leucothites (Vittad.) Wasser,
Ukrayins'k. Bot. Zhurn. 34: 308 (1977).
W.A., N.T., S.A., N.S.W. and Vic. (and probably also Qld and Tas.).
In gardens, parks or pastures. Occurrence in native forests uncertain.
On the ground or among mulch.
Saprotrophic.
Bougher, N.L. (2009a),
Fungi of the Perth region and beyond: a self-managed field book, Western Australian Naturalists' Club (Inc.), Perth. [
Description and
Illustration of
L. leucothites (as
L. naucinus)]
Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of L. leucothites (as L. naucinus)]
Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (eds) (1995), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 4. Agarics 2nd part. Edition Mykologia, Lucerne. [Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of L. leucothites (and as L. cinerascens and L. subcretaceus) from Europe]
Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of L. leucothites (as L. naucinus), Illustration as L. ooliekirrus looks more like a Leucocoprinus]
Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description and Microcharacters of L. leucothites (as L. naucinus and L. ooliekirrus]
McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of L. leucothites (as L. naucinus)]
Vellinga, E. (2001a), Leucoagaricus, in M.E. Noordeloos, T.W. Kuyper & E.C. Vellinga (eds), Flora Agaricina Neerlandica, Volume 5, 85–108. A.A. Balkema Publishers, Lisse. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of L. leucothites from the Netherlands]
