images/Montagnea/Montagnea_arenaria_JS_1.jpg
Small to medium agaric, growing on the ground with spores black in mass at maturity. Pileus pale, brown or grey, dry. Lamellae dry and papery at maturity. Stipe central. Volva present. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores brown or black, smooth; with a broad germ pore. Clamp connections reported by some authors, but their presence could not be confirmed by Reid & Eicker (1991).
The pileus flesh of
Montagnea is very thin towards the margin, and can erode, so that in top view the lamellae radiate from a central disc like the spokes of a wheel. Another fungus of the arid interior,
Gyrophragmium, shares the dry, dark mature lamellae, but it is more robust, and the spores lack a germ pore.
Montagnea resembles a dried out
Coprinus sens. lat., but it does not deliquesce.
Montagnea Fr., Fl. Scan. 339 (1836).
Two species: Montagena arenaria (with var. macrospora) and M. haussknechtii.
W.A., N.T., S.A., Qld, N.S.W. and Vic.
In native vegetation in the arid interior.
On the ground.
Saprotrophic.
Dring, D.M. & Rayss, T. (1963), The gasteromycete fungi of Israel,
Israel J. Bot. 12: 147–178. [
Description and
B&W Illustration of
M. arenaria from Israel]
Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of M. arenaria]
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 M. arenaria var. macrospora]
McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of M. arenaria]
Morse, E.E. (1948), Variation in Montagnites arenarius (DC.), Mycologia 40: 255–261. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of M. arenaria (as Montagnites)]
Reid, D.A. & Eicker, A. (1991b), A taxonomic survey of the genus Montagnea (Gasteromycetes) with special reference to South Africa, S. African J. Bot. 57: 161–170. [Description and Microcharacters of M. arenaria (and var. macrospora) and M. haussknechtii along with B&W Illustration of the latter]
