Lysurus cruciatus

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Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously, usually in urban habitats (lawns, landscaping, gardens, and so on); widely distributed in North America; also known from South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia; summer, or, in warm climates, year round. The illustrated and described collections are from Colorado, Washington, and New South Wales, Australia.

Fruiting Body: Initially a whitish "egg" up to 2 cm wide and 3 cm high; emerging to form a mushroom with a stem and a head. Stem 3-6 cm long; 0.5-1 cm thick; whitish to pale orange; round in cross-section; more or less equal; pocketed; spongy and soft; hollow; base encased in a white volva that is attached to white rhizoids. Head consisting of 4-7 short arms 1-2 cm long, initially folded inward with tips touching, but with age separating and standing individually; arms tightly wrinkled in concentric accordion-like folds; narrowed to a point at their tips; hollow; dark to pale orange; at first with a longitudinal "seam" on the outer edge—but with development the seam opens up to form a flat, sterile surface; elsewhere the young, fresh arms are coated with malodorous, dark brown spore slime.

Microscopic Features: Spores 2.5-4 x 1.5-2 m; elongated-ellipsoid to subcylindric; smooth; hyaline to yellowish in KOH; inamyloid; not cyanophilic. Context sphaerocysts 10-60 m; subglobose to irregular; walls 1 m thick; hyaline in KOH. Volval tissue composed of parallel hyphae 2-6 m wide, frequently septate, clamped at septa, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline in KOH.

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