Glossary

We would particularly like to link to the glossary prepared by Dr. E. C. Vellinga for the Flora Agaricina Neerlandica.  It this glossary is available on-line, RET would be delighted to know about it.


Glossary of terms applying to agarics—including
terms with usage specialized with regard to the Amanitaceae
and terms requested by our site users


acrophysalide (adj. acrophysalidic) - a terminal inflated cell, having the role of expanding the tissue of a basidiome in which such cells are found by means of the inflation of these cells with water during the final stages of basidiome development.
from Bas (1975): "In the introduction to the morphology of Amanita in an earlier paper (Bas 1969: 325, 328).  I provisionally called the hyphae (representing the connective tissue) in this type of tissue the 'feeding hyphae' and the terminal, inflated cells (representing the fundamental tissue) the 'pressure cells.'  These terms are not very satisfactory because they cannot be readily applied in other languages while moreover they presume a certain function of these elements; instead, purely morphological termas are to be preferred that can be used in any language. For the terminal, inflated cells as they occur in the trama of Amanita I therefore propose the term 'acrophysalide.'  The acrophysalidic tissue of Amanita is of great interest, because it is (like the heteromerous tissue in Russula and Lactarius, and the sarcodimitic tissue in Trogia) one of the few examples of fundamental differentiations in the sterile tissues of the fruitbody of agarics, comparable to, and probably of an equal taxonomic importance as the differentiations in the sterile tissues of di- and trimitic polypores."
[Note: Such cells are present and often common or dominating in both cap and stipe tissues of species of the Amanitaceae.  In the stipe tissues of taxa of this family, the acrophysalides (and the hyphae from which they develop) have a very distinctly longitudinal arrangement; hence, the phrase "longitudinally acrophysalidic" is now used to describe the stipe context in the Amanitaceae.]

"amanita tissue" - a term use by Bas in his thesis (1969) to denote the unique stipe context tissue of Amanita species.  [Note: Because of the circularity of the definition, Bas and Tulloss agreed to replace the phrase with another—"longitudinally acrophysalidic tissue."]

barcode, fungal - (also, "barcode marker for fungi") a well-defined locus ("gene") or loci ("genes") in the fungal genome that provides strong interspecies differentiation and is relatively easily and consistently sequenced by well-defined protocols—at present the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) (Schoch et al., 2012).  [Note: The reader may wish to refer to further information about nrITS with relation to Amanitaceae studies: A catalog of internal structure (subloci) of nrITS in the family is found here.—ed.]

cheilocystidium - solitary, sterile, terminal cell determined by the genome in some taxa of basidiomycetes, found [only] on the edges of lamellae of basidiomes of such a taxon, and differentiated (e.g., by one or more of the following: shape, size, content, wall-thickness, chemistry, surface decoration, contents, and/or relative prominence) from adjacent or nearby cells on the lamella edge of that fungus.  See cystidium.  [Note: Cheilocystidia do not occur in Amanita.  The lamella edge in amanitas comprises a loose bundle of roughly co-parallel hyphae bearing approximately uniform cells that break apart easily—allowing the lamella edge to separate from tissues to which it was connected during basidiome development.  Hence, it is not surprising that a type study of Amanita cystidiosa Miller et al. (distinguished by the presence of cheilocystidia, among other characters) revealed that the entity was a lepiotaceous species.]

clamps, proliferated - "Sometimes the clamps at the base of older basidia have grown out to form new basidia (proliferation of clamps; see Bas, 1965: 355).  Then [i.e., in the above situation—ed.] true clamps are only to be found on the youngest basidia.  Usually, however, the typical shape of the base of the older basidia betrays the original presence of clamps.  Their basal septa then often consist of two planes meeting at an obtuse angle." [from (Bas 1969: 319).—ed.]

CMMTL or CMMF - herbarium code for Herbier de Champignons, Cercle des Mycologues de Montréal.

cystidium - solitary, sterile, terminal cell determined by the genome in some taxa of basidiomycetes, found [only] on a surface of basidiomes of such a taxon, and differentiated (e.g., by one or more of the following: shape, size, content, wall-thickness, chemistry, surface decoration, contents, and/or relative prominence) from adjacent or nearby cells on that surface.  See cheilocystidium.  [Note: Cystidia are not know in the Amanitacaeae.]

fertile edge (of lamellae) - lamella (gill) edge that bears spore-bearing cells (basidia).  See sterile margin, below.  [Note: Fertile margins are present on the lamellae of Limacella and probably were present in the common ancestor of Limacella and Amanita; however, they have been lost in Amanita.]

hymenium - surface layer of the lamellae (gills).  [Note: This layer includes the spore-bearing cells (basidia) and immature spore-bearing cells (basidioles).  In many genera distinctive cells called cystidia may also appear in the hymenium; however, there is no known species of Amanita that bears such cells on the lamellae.  It is considered unnecessary to report their absence in descriptions of species that are definitively placed in Amanita.

sterile edge (of lamellae) - lamella (gill) edge not bearing basidia.  [Note: Because of the unique ontogeny (development) of Amanita basidiomes (fruiting bodies), the edges of lamellae eventually must separate from other tissues to which the developing lamellae were previously connected; specialized cells that easily break apart develop along the lamella edge, facilitating separation.  The evolution of basidiome development in Amanita has resulted in the displacement of basidia from the gill edge.  Hence, the lamella edges in Amanita species are sterile.]

stirps - informal (unauthored) supraspecific rank.  [Note: In these pages, the rank of stirps is the lowest supraspecifc rank including groups of species believed on the basis of morphology to have greatest similarity.  The designation of stirpes is a first step in the morphological evaluation of the grouping of species in higher supraspecific ranks.  A particularly fine model of this approach is the monograph of C. Bas (1969) on Amanita section Lepidella.]

subhymenium - morphologically distinct layer of cells underlying the cells of the hymenium and, from which layer, basidia and basidioles develop.  [Note: In Amanita this layer has diverse distinct forms that can be used in distinguishing taxa within some sections of the genus.]

subhymenial tree - portion of a lamella comprising diverging elements located between the central stratum and the hymenium.

subhymenial base - portion of the subhymenial tree defined by excluding the subhymenium.

SZMC - herbarium code for Szeged Microbiological Collections, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.

virgate - having the appearance of radial hairs embedded in the surface (at times an optical illusion, as in Amanita phalloides), usually applied only to the upper surface of the pileus.

WPMC - Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club. (t.b.d.)