These mushrooms include both mycorrhizal and saprobic species. The mycorrhizal species live always in association with the roots of mycorrhizal trees. The only native mycorrhizal trees are the beech and tea-tree species, while introduced ones include pines, oaks, eucalypts, silver birch, etc.
The mycorrhizal mushroom genera found only in native forests are Austropaxillus, Cortinarius, Descolea, Macowanites, and Rozites, while Amanita, Lactarius, Russula, and Tricholoma include both native and introduced species.
The saprobic genera are Agaricus, Coprinus, and Chlorophyllum, all living on decaying plant and animal material buried in the soil. Many species in these genera have been introduced fungi and are found in parks, gardens, and farms.
Genera with pale-coloured spores are Amanita, Chlorophyllum, Lactarius, Macowanites, Russula, and Tricholoma. In most the spores are white, but pale green in Chlorophyllum and sometimes yellowish in Russula.
Lactarius, Macowanites, Russula, and Tricholoma have a stalk with no ring and a cap which is usually smooth or with fine scales. Of these, Lactarius, Macowanites, and Russula have brittle flesh that snaps easily; Lactarius bleeds a milky sap when broken; and the caps of Macowanites never open fully, the gills remaining more or less enclosed by the cap. Tricholoma has gills with a notch near the stalk, whereas the gills of the other genera are broadly attached to the stalk.
Amanita and Chlorophyllum have a ring on the stalk, or have large, coarse scales on the cap.
Genera with dark spores are include Austropaxillus, Cortinarius, Descolea, and Rozites with spores yellow-brown to rusty-brown, Agaricus with spores dark chocolate in colour, and Coprinus with black spores.
|
|
|
Cap smooth or with dark fibrillose scales, usually dull in colour (some of the indigenous pecies with dark brown scales);, stalk central with a well-developed ring;, gills always pink when immature, becoming dark chocolate brown as spores develop, more or less free. Stalk typically breaks cleanly away from the cap. Spore print chocolate brown. Saprobic on the soil.
Seven...
|
|
|
|
|
Large mushrooms, solitary or in small groups on soil close to their ectomycorrhizal host trees. Cap typically with large scaly or powdery patches, white, yellowish, greyish, dark brown, or red (the exotic A. muscaria) in colour. Gills free, white, covered with veil when immature, the veil sometimes forming a persistent ring around the stalk in mature fruiting bodies. Stalk swollen towards the bas...
|
|
|
|
|
Large fleshy fungi with felty light to dark brown caps, sunken towards the centre. The edge of the cap is typically rolled in on itself. The stalk is central and the gills curve down to meet it (decurrent). The gills are quite thickset and generally buff to ochre becoming darker as the spores mature. Spore print orange to rusty brown. Ectomycorrhizal in Nothofagus forests. Three indigenous species...
|
|
|
|
|
Large, fleshy, long-stalked mushrooms always on soil. Cap covered with large, brown scales, white beneath the scales. Stem with well-developed ring, stem often swollen near the base. Gills white, free.
In New Zealand there is a single, introduced species, found in grassy areas, on wasteland or in wood chip mulches. Often refered to under the genus name Macrolepiota.
Recent molecu...
|
|
|
|
|
The "ink-cap" mushrooms, characterised by the gills and cap collapsing into an black, inky mass as they mature. Flesh thin and delicate. Most species are small, the caps often more or less oval in shape, but the tall cylindric Coprinus comatus (shaggy mane) is up to 25 cm high. The small species are often found in large clumps, either on soil or dead wood. They can appear and be gone again ...
|
|
|
|
|
Traditionally Cortinarius includes mushrooms with a central stalk, extremely variable in
size and colour, but always with a rusty-brown or cinnamon brown spore print and a "cortina" - a web-like veil covering the gills when immature, and remaining as a few whispy fragments on the stalk when mature. All ectomycorrhizal, these are the most common mushrooms on the ground in Nothofagus...
|
|
|
|
|
Cap brown to dark brown, often with scales, usually dry. Stalk with well-developed ring with prominent striations. Spore print brown.
Always on soil, ectomycorrhizal under Nothofagus and tea-tree. There are three species in New Zealand, two of these known also from Australia. D. gunnii is commonly found under tea-tree, D. majestatica and D. phlebophora may be rest...
|
|
|
|
|
Spore print white or yellow. Cap about 5-10 cm diam., slightly sunken towards the centre, surface often velvety, most species pale orange (salmon) or dark brown. Flesh brittle, snaps easily, exudates a white or yellowish sticky liquid when broken. Stipe similar in colour to cap, cylindric or tapering slightly towards the base, no ring.
Lactarius species are ectomycorrhizal, always fou...
|
|
|
|
|
Secotioid or truffle-like Russula species.
The pinkish-red Macowanites carmineus is quite common, has a well-developed stalk, and gills which remain covered by a thin, membranous veil. The shape, texture, and colours are very reminescent of Russula. M. tapawera and M. rubroluteus differ in lacking a distinct stalk. Microscopically the characteristic spores are ...
|
|
|
|
|
Spore print rusty brown. Cap about 5-10 cm diam., typically sticky or glutinous, with irregular, scale-like patches, often striate near the margin; stalk with a well-developed, persistent, striate ring.
Molecular studies have shown that the characters used to recognise Rozites (glutinous cap and striate ring) have evolved indepently several times. Most New Zealand species of Rozite...
|
|
|
|
|
Spore print white or yellow. Cap up to about 10 cm diam., sunken towards the centre, smooth, or with radiate ridges near margin (‘pectinate’), or scaly in one species. Colour varying between species, yellow-brown, red, purple, or green, the colours washing out in wet weather or with age. Flesh white, sometimes darkeing on exposure to air, brittle, snaps easily. Gills white to yellow, sometimes sta...
|
|
|
|
|
Spore print white. Medium to large-sized, robust, fleshy mushrooms, cap smooth or with small fine scales, stalk
entral with no ring, gills adnexed (notched near stalk), always on soil.
Tricholoma species are ectomycorrhizal, always found on the soil close to their host trees. The indigenous species are confined to either Nothofagus forests or to stands of tea-tree.
Only ...
|
|
|
|
|
The cap is campanulate or conical, white or grey , and silky. The gills are white turning deep pink. The stem does not have a ring, but is enclosed by a large volva at the base. Spore print pink.
Only two species are known in New Zealand. V. surrecta occurs in native forests where it fruits on old mushrooms of other species. It is rare and listed as 'nationally critical'. The second species, ...
|
|