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Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884

Scientific name record
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Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke, Grevillea 12 70 (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884

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Exotic
Present
New Zealand
Political Region
Epitypified 2025 for a taxon in recent records identified as L. proxima. Histrorically the name was used very broadly and most often in NZ to L. laccata var. palldidifolia and L. macrocystidiata

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Cooke
Scop.
(Scop.) Cooke
1884
70
Fr.
ICN
species
Laccaria laccata

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laccata

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Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884

Type: Mycorrhizal Fungi; Description: Basidiomata pileate. Pileus pale red, reddish brown or brownish pink, 15–60 mm in diameter, hygrophanous, minutely squamulose, convex to plano-convex, umbilicate, sometimes centrally depressed, margin striate and sometimes wavy; flesh thin, pinkish red. Gills adnate, distant, concolorous with the pileus, dusted white with basidiospores when mature. Stipe more or less cylindrical, slender, straight or flexuous, concolorous with the pileus or paler, striate, 50–90 mm long. Basidiospores globose, 0-septate, 8–10 μm in diameter, verruculose, hyaline, non-amyloid; spore print white.
Distribution: Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taupo, Wanganui, Wellington, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Buller, Westland, North Canterbury, Mid Canterbury, Dunedin, Southland.; 1st Record: Rawlings (1951).
Notes: The correct name for this very common fungus is in some doubt. It was first recorded in New Zealand by Colenso (1893) as Agaricus (Clitocybe) laccatus. This name was based on a specimen collected near Dannevirke and sent to Cooke for identification. Massee (1899) later included it in his account of the fungus flora of New Zealand as Laccaria laccata. The specimen on which these records were based is no longer extant. Stevenson (1964) noted that L. laccata was the commonest toadstool in the country. McNabb (1972) failed to find L. laccata during the course of his study of Laccaria and remarked that all Stevenson’s collections examined by him could be referred to either L. proxima or L. tetraspora. The description that follows is of the variable species usually referred to as Laccaria laccata, which is very common in nurseries and plantations of Pinus radiata.
Significance: A very common and variable fungus with fruiting bodies occurring in troops in nurseries and plantations. Isolated from and experimentally shown to be a mycorrhizal partner of Pinus radiata (Chu-Chou 1979), Pseudotsuga menziesii (Chu-Chou & Grace 1981c) and Eucalyptus delegatensis (Chu-Chou & Grace 1982). In a comparative study it was found that seedlings inoculated with L. laccata grew better than seedlings inoculated with Rhizopogon rubescens during the first six months. The increased growth rate was not maintained and the R. rubescens-inoculated seedlings were larger by the end of the growing season (Chu-Chou & Grace 1985).; Host(s): Betula pendula, Eucalyptus delegatensis, Pinus nigra subsp. laricio, P. radiata, Pseudotsuga menziesii.
This usually brick-red species is the commonest toadstool in New Zealand occurring under both native and exotic woody vegetation at all times of the year. Singer (1951) describes the spores as ellipsoid or globose, not more than 10 µm, with spines less than. 1 µm. long. The writer has examined specimens L. laccata in The Kew Herbarium which show the following spore characters:-

(1)     coll. J. E. C. Aberdeen, Queensland, 4.8.1952; spores globose, 8-9 µm diam., spines in, close-set.

(2)     coll. R. W. G. Dennis, Portugal, 16.10.1955; spores ovoid 8-9 x 10-11 µm, spines 0.5 µm.

(3)     Herbarium Berkeley, coll. in Tasmania; spores ovoid 8-9 x 10-11 µm, spines 0.5 µm.

Lange (1935) describes the spores of C. (Laccaria) laccata var. proxima, as ovate-globose, minutely echinulate, 7.5-9 x 6.75-7.5 µm, with spines 1 µm long, but mentions also collections with large globose, spores and comments, probably the form of the spore is not constant; Rea (1922) states that both elliptical and globose spores have been found on the same plant, but this does not seem to have been confirmed and is contrary to the writer's observations.

New Zealand collections which have been examined usually have globose spores, 9-10 µm diam., with well-developed spines, but ovoid spores have also been seen. More information about the distribution of spore forms in relation to macroscopic characters would be interesting.

This mixed description also incorporates L. ohiensis

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Agaricus laccatus Scop. (1772)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke (1884)
Russuliopsis laccata (Scop.) J. Schröt.
Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884

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Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884
Czechoslovakia

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1cb18fae-36b9-11d5-9548-00d0592d548c
scientific name
Names_Fungi
1 January 2000
18 September 2025
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