Gymnopus peronatus

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***Gymnopus peronatus*** (formerly called ***Collybia peronata*** or ***Marasmius urens***) is a species of gilled mushroom which is common in European woods. The English name **wood woolly-foot** has been given to this species.

## Naming

This species was originally described by James Bolton in his 1788 book "An history of fungusses, growing about Halifax" as *Agaricus peronatus* at a time when all gilled mushrooms were assigned to genus *Agaricus*. Then in 1821 another Englishman, Samuel Frederick Gray published his “Natural Arrangement of British Plants” (including fungi) in which he allocated the species to the already existing genus *Gymnopus*.

In 1791 Bulliard described the same species as *Agaricus urens*, the epithet "urens" ("burning") referring to the acrid taste, and in 1836 Fries put it genus *Marasmius*. Also in 1871 Paul Kummer put this mushroom in genus *Collybia*, giving it the name *Collybia peronata*. For many years it was known either as *Marasmius urens* or *Collybia peronata* (or sometimes *Marasmius peronatus* or *Collybia urens*). The *peronatus* and *urens* forms have been distinguished as different species, *urens* having a lighter-coloured cap, but this view is outdated.

In much later work culminating in 1997, Antonín and Noordeloos found that the genus *Collybia* as defined at that time was unsatisfactory due to being polyphyletic and they proposed a fundamental rearrangement. They resurrected the genus *Gymnopus* for some species including *peronata*, and after subsequent DNA studies, this has been accepted by modern authorities including Species Fungorum and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and so its current name has reverted to Gray's combination, *Gymnopus peronatus*.

The species name *peronatus* indicates that the stem is partially "booted" with a hairy covering below (from the Latin *peronatus* meaning half-booted).

## Description

The following sections use the given references throughout.

### General

 File:Gymnopus peronatus 130919w.JPG
* The cap grows from about 2 cm to 6 cm, and is yellowish or reddish brown.
* There is no ring or other veil remnant. The stem is roughly the same colour as the cap and up to about 8 cm long and only 0.5  cm in diameter. It is typically pruinose ("frosted") above and strigose (hairy) near the base.
* The well-spaced gills are concolorous with the cap or somewhat lighter.
* The undamaged mushroom has little smell, but on bruising it has an aroma of vinegar. The taste is acrid or peppery.

### Microscopic characteristics

* The elongated comma-shaped spores are around 8 µm by 4 µm.
* It has irregular coralloid cheilocystidia.

### Distribution, habitat & ecology

This saprobic mushroom grows generally in smaller or larger clumps on leaves or needles in deciduous or coniferous woods and may be found from May to December.

It is common throughout Europe, and has also been reported from a few sites in America and Japan.

## Human impact

This fungus is generally regarded as inedible, mainly because of its peppery or acrid taste, and has little human impact. However, according to one Spanish web site it may be dried, ground up, and used as a condiment. One 1948 paper states that this species generates hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in detectable amounts, suggesting that it is poisonous. However the same paper lists other mushrooms normally considered edible, such as *Infundibulicybe geotropa*, as having the same characteristic, so it is difficult to know how much significance to attribute to this observation.

## References

1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Phillips`
2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `firstNature`
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Bolton`
4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Gray`
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `ElRoyo`
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `FN`
7. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Antonin1997`
8. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `SF1`
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `GBIF`
10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `peronatus`
11. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Bon`
12. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Courtecuisse`
13. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Moser`
14. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `mycocharentes`
15. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Bach1948`

## Links

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