SPECIES FACT SHEET Scientific Name: Stagnicola perplexa (Orton) Redhead & Smith Division: Eumycota Subdivision: Basidiomycotina Class: Agraicomycetes Order: Agaricales Family: Strophariaceae Conservation Rankings and Status: Global: G3G4 State: OR S1S2, WA Not ranked Oregon Biodiversity Infromation Center (ORBIC) List 2 (Ranks from ORBIC, http://orbic.pdx.edu accessed August 16, 2013) Type Locality: United Kingdom Technical Description: Morphological habit Mushroom. Cap 4-25 mm in diam., campanulate to convex with small broad umbo, marginally translucent-striate when moist, silky when dry, smooth, darker tawny over the disc paling to yellow-brown on the margins. Taste slightly to intensely bitter. Gills narrowly attached to seceding, close to crowded, even to minutely eroded edges, yellow-olive, pale olive gray to dull amber, cinnamon brown in age. Stem central to slightly eccentric, 15-45 mm long, 0.5-2 mm wide at apex, smooth, pale yellow-brown at apex, darkening to red-brown to black at base, with yellow-brown mycelial tomentum at base. Basidia 4 spored. Cheilocystidia 25-54 x 5-7 μm, abundant, cylindrical to narrowly fusoid, sometimes forked or onceseptate, thin walled, hyaline. Clamp Connections present. Spores ellipsoid to slightly reniform, 4.5-6 (-6.5) x 3-3.5 (-4) μm, smooth, subhyaline to pale yellow, inamyloid, slightly thick walled, cyanophilic, spore print brown. Other Stagnicola perplexa is extremely similar in the field to the slightly taller Mythicomyces corneipes, which produces a purple-brown spore print and is easily distinguished microscopically by its lightly roughened spores with an apical beak and the absence of clamp connections. It is also possible that S. perplexa could be confused with the larger Phaeocollybia attenuata, which has a long, wirelike pseudorhiza, larger, heavily ornamented, limoniform-subglobose spores or Psilocybe physaloides, which has an apically enlarged fibrillose stem, dark purple-brown, large spores with a germ pore, and fusoid to lageniform short-necked cheilocystidia. Life History: Saprophytic and gregarious on rotten wood, occasionally buried deeply enough to appear “rooting” in wet or recently dried-up 1 depressions in coniferous forests. Fruits in in the late summer to early autumn. Range, Distribution and Abundance: Known from the boreal forests of North America and Europe. In Oregon and Washington, it is known from approximnately 7 sites within the Northwest Forest Plan Area, in the WA and OR Western Cascades and WA Eastern Cascades Provinces. FS/BLM lands in Oregon and Washington: Detections in WA, Mt. BakerSnoqualmie NF, Gifford Pinchot NF, Okanogan-Wenatchee NF and Spokane BLM District. Detectons in OR on Mt. Hood NF, Rogue RiverSiskiyou NF. Habitat Associations: Stagnicola perplexa is saprophytic on very rotten conifer wood in boggy or wet areas or recently dried depressions in boreal coniferous forests. It is associated with Pacific silver fir and more moist forest, but has also been documented in shrub-steppe habitat. Threats: Whatever threatens the substrate, microclimate, and/or general habitat can imperil the associated organism. All populations are at risk to incidental catastrophic events, such as hot fires, and unmonitored human interference. Unprotected occurrences are at risk from logging activities such as brush clearing or removal of the substrate and underlying soil. The rarity of known occurrences increases the scope of the estimated threat at this time. This species is slow to mature, reproduces infrequently, and/or has low fecundity such that populations are vulnerable to removal of substrate and underlying soil, and destruction of habitat through incidental catastrophic events (climate change brought on by global warming, hot fires, drought) or human interference. It is particularly vulnerable to alteration of microhabitats and microclimate regimes caused by logging activities, stream diversion, road construction, and development. Conservation Considerations: As a wood saprobe, Stagnicola perplexa probably does not extend beyond the available substrate (log, stump etc). Retention of habitat patches across a landscape could provide possible areas of refugia and potential areas for colonization. To provide a reasonable assurance of the continued persistence of occupied sites consider incorporation of patch retention areas (as described in Standards and Guidelines 1994, C-41) with occupied sites wherever possible. Other pertinent information (includes references to Survey Protocols, etc): The survey protocol for sensitive fungi is located on the ISSSSP website: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/documents/inventories/inv-spfu-ver1-2008-12.pdf. 2 The survey protocol for Survey and Manage fungi is located on the Survey and Manage website: http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/surveyandmanage/protocols/ Prepared by: Helen Lau, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Date: April, 2013 Edited by: Rob Huff, BLM/FS Portland, Oregon Date: January, 2014 ATTACHMENTS: (1) References (2) Map of Species Distribution (3) Photographs of Species ATTACHMENT 1: References Ammirati, J. 1994. Endangered, threatened and sensitive macrofungi of Washington State. Official Letter to C. Turley, Science team leader, Washington State Dept. of Natural resources. Dated March 26, 1994. Arora, David. 1979. Mushrooms Demystified - A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. 959 pp. Castellano, M.A. & T. O’Dell. 1997. Management Recommendations for Survey and Manage Fungi. Version 2.0. Castellano, M.A., J.E. Smith, T. O’Dell, E. Cazares, and S. Nugent. 1999. Handbook to Strategy 1 Fungal Species in the Northwest Forest Plan. PNW-GTR-476. Cushman, Kathleen and Rob Huff. 2007. Conservation Assessment for Fungi Included in Forest Service Regions 5 and 6 Sensitive and BLM California, Oregon and Washington Special Status Species Programs. R6 USFS and OR/WA BLM Interagency Special Status/Sensitive Species Program (ISSSSP). http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/planning-tools/ Ferriel, Jenifer and Katie Grenier. 2008. Annotated Bibliography of Information Potentially Pertaining to Management of Rare Fungi on the Special Status Species List for California, Oregon and Washington. R6 3 USFS and OR/WA BLM Interagency Special Status/Sensitive Species Program (ISSSSP). http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/planning-tools/ GeoBOB query (BLM Oregon/Washington database; also contains FS Region 6 fungi information), Febuary 2012. Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center. 2010. Survey and Manage Assessments: Rank Assessments. Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center, Oregon State University. Portland. http://orbic.pdx.edu/raremanage.html Redhead, S.A.; Smith, A.H. 1986. Two new genera of agarics based on Psilocybe corneipes and Phaeocollybia perplexa. Canadian Journal of Botany. 64: 643-647. Trudell, Steve and Ammirati, Joe. 2009. Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR. p.255. USFS Forest Service. 2012. Natural Resource Information System (NRIS). http://fsweb.nris.fs.fed.us/ 4 ATTACHMENT 2: Map of Species Distribution in OR/WA 5 ATTACHMENT 3: Photographs of Species Photos by Paul Kroeger 6 Spores and basidia 7