Mycena semivestipes (Peck) A. H. Sm., 1947

Lu, Wenhua, Alfagham, Alanoud T., Tibpromma, Saowaluck, Suwannarach, Nakarin, Kumla, Jaturong, Dai, Dong-Qin, Elgorban, Abdallah M., Chukeatirote, Ekachai & Karunarathna, Samantha C., 2025, Hidden in the daylight: A polyphasic approach reveals two bioluminescent Mycenaceae species from Yunnan Province, China (Basidiomycota, Agaricales), Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 168858-e 168858 : e168858-

Mycena semivestipes (Peck) A. H. Sm., 1947

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceID: 8DC70ECC-4DD5-5DDE-BE1A-B9A03672DE9E; Taxon: kingdom: Fungi; phylum: Basidiomycota; class: Agaricomycetes; order: Agaricales ; family: Mycenaceae ; genus: Mycena ; taxonRank: species; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Chuxiong; verbatimElevation: 1871 m; verbatimLatitude: 24°54′31″N; verbatimLongitude: 101°07′25″E; Identification: identifiedBy: Wenhua Lu; Event: year: 2023; month: July; day: 15; Record Level: institutionID: Guizhou Medical University Herbarium (GMB); institutionCode: GMB 1045 ; collectionCode: CX 006; basisOfRecord: other material GMB 1047 , living culture GMBCC 1066 ; GenBank accession numbers ITS: PQ 373879 ( GMB 1045 ), PQ 373880 ( GMB 1047 ), PQ 373883 ( GMBCC 1066 ); LSU: PQ 373885 ( GMB 1045 ), PQ 373886 ( GMB 1047 ), PQ 373889 ( GMBCC 1066 )

Description

Basidiomata small. Pileus 3–15 mm diam., hemispheric, campaniform, expanding to flatten with age, initially convex to obtusely conical, margin white, centre greyish-white (1 B 1) when young, surface wet, smooth, slimy, depressed, striate-plicate, translucid; centre light orange (5 A 4–5); margin white or translucid, thin, translucent-striate, hygrophanous in age; colour changes to greyish-orange (5 B 4–5), brownish-orange (5 C 5–6) when mature. Context thin, fragile, translucent, white. Lamellae adnate to subdecurrent, whitish to white with 1–3 series of lamellulae, edges finely fimbriate under a lens, concolorous. Stipe 20–45 × 0.6–1.2 mm, cylindrical, hollow, brittle, brownish-orange to reddish-golden (6 C 7–8), milk-white (1 A 1–2) from base upwards, brown (6 E 7–8) at the base with whitish mycelium fascicles. Smell and taste none (Figs 1 , 2 ).

Bioluminescence: Only the caps and gills of basidiomata and the mycelia on the PDA emit yellowish-green light and the bioluminescence on spores was undetected (Fig. 3 a).

Basidiospores (3.4 –) 4.0–5.0 (– 5.5) × (2.0 –) 2.3–2.8 (– 3.0) μm (n = 50), Q = 1.55-1.80, Qm = 1.7, ellipsoid to oblong, smooth, hyaline, containing oil droplets, thin-walled, inamyloid. Basidia 14.5–22 × 4–6.5 μm (n = 15), 4 - sterigmata, clavate, some with oily contents, thin-walled. Cheilocystidia abundant, 15–35 × 7.5–13 μm, mainly clavate, cylindrical to fusiform, utriform with warty or finger-like protuberances, colourless, thin-walled. Pleurocystidia like cheilocystidia, 14–33.5 × 8–13 μm. Pileipellis a cutis with a well-developed cutis structure, hyphae 4–6 μm wide, cylindrical, parallel, with abundant, numerous sharp spines, colourless, thin-walled. Stipitipellis is a cutis with thin-walled hyphae. Caulocystidia clavate or fusiform. Clamp connections present on all hyphae and structures are abundant (Figs 1 , 2 ).

Distribution

Canada, China, France, Sweden and the USA.

Ecology

Scattered, clustered or in groups on decaying trees in mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests in summer and autumn.

Notes

The ITS sequences of our Mycena collections had the highest BLAST score to that of M. semivestipes (LE-BIN 3362) with 98.62 % (difference in three indels and three substitutions) and M. tintinnabulum (NSK 1017255) with 99 % (difference in three indels and four substitutions). Morphologically, both M. semivestipes and M. tintinnabulum are very similar; the former differs in that the finger-like protuberances of cystidia are sparse, whereas in M. tintinnabulum , cheilocystidia bear numerous short finger-like or occasionally branched projections, giving a distinctly ornamented appearance ( Smith 1937, Smith 1947, Na 2019). Mycena tintinnabulum is mainly found in Europe and the bioluminescence is present only in the mycelium. Our collections are consistent with M. semivestipes in many cases (small, lubricous basidiomata, adnate to subdecurrent lamellae, smooth amyloid spores, gelatinous pileipellis, cartilaginous context and cheilocystidia smooth or somewhat contorted and branched, but not numerous finger-like processes); Na (2019) reported that it is a new record for China, based on specimens from southwest China. Macro-morphological characteristics indicate that the colour of the basidiomata in our collection is similar to that of the Chinese specimen M. semivestipes , which is white or dirty white and changes to a yellowish-brown to light brown after being removed from the habitat. However, the fruiting bodies of European species are dark brown or nearly dark brown.

Figures

Figure 1. Basidiomata of Mycena semivestipes (GMB 1045). a, b, d Photographs in the daylight; c Stipe with white mycelium hairs (red arrow); e 1 Photograph with the aid of a flashlight in the lab; e 2 Bioluminescent photographs in complete darkness. Scale bars: a, b, d, e = 10 mm, c = 1 mm.

Figure 2. Microscopic characteristics of Mycena semivestipes (GMB 1045). a Spores; b Basidia; c Cheilocystidia; d Pleurocystidia; e Pileipellis hyphae; f Stipitipellis with caulocystidia. Scale bars = 10 µm.

Figure 3. Cultures of bioluminescent fungi on PDA in daylight (a 1 and b 1) and dark conditions (a 2 and b 2) after seven days incubation at 25–28 ℃. a Mycena semivestipes (GMBCC 1066); b Roridomyces pruinosoviscidus (GMBCC 1068). Scale bars = 10 mm.