Species Fact Sheet
Common Name:
Scientific Name: Arrhenia lobata (Pers.) Kuhner & Lamoure ex Redhead (Synonyms
= Cantharellus lobatus (Pers.) Fr., Corniola lobata (Pers.) Gray, Dictyolus lobatus (Pers.)
Quel., Leptoglossum lobatum (Pers.) Ricken, Deptotus lobatus (Pers.) p. Karst., Merulius
lobatus Pers.)
Divivion: Eumycota
Subdivision: Basidiomycotina
Class: Basidiomycetes
Order: Aphyllophorales
Family: Cantharellaceae
Technical Description (Gibson, 2007):
Cap 0.5-4 cm, rarely round, more often oboval, fan-shaped or kidney-shaped, rarely
funnel-shaped, membranous, margins incurved and remaining so, usually lobed,
sometimes deeply incised, sometimes crisped (finely wavy) and scalloped;
hygrophanous, light gray brown to gray yellow brown or buff, fading when partially dry,
often blackening on exposed margins or when dry; surface moist. Underside smooth
when immature, soon with branched more or less radially arranged veins with numerous
cruving anatomosing lateral veins or more irregularly veined-wrinkled, often forking;
colored as cap or paler. Stem not well formed, atachment off-center or lateral, base may
be whitish or just paler than cap, attached by whitish mycelium. Spores 5-10(15) x 4.28.5 um, more or less elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, with conspicuous blunt
apiculus; clamp connections present.
In their combination of morphological features and habitat, relatively few other veined
fungi are likely to be mistaken for Arrhenia lobata. The most conspicuous group of
veined fungi - the chanterelles - which include the genera Cantharellus, Craterellus,
Gomphus and Polyozellus, have upright sporocarps "with vein-like folds on the underside
of a cap (usually running down onto the upper part of the stem) or on the outside of a
funnel-like sporocarp, 5 cm or more tall when mature, generally growing on the ground"
(Gibson, 2007). Besides Arrhenia, genera with at least some species with small
sporocarps (< 5 cm) with vein- or gill-like spore-bearing structures are included in
several genera including Cudonia, Marasmius, Mycena, Hemimycena, Rimbachia and
Stereopsis. Within this group, only Cudonia circinans and several species of Arrhenia
have sporocarps that are typically some color other than white. The cap of Cudonia
circinans often includes some red or yellow pigmentation, resulting in colors such as
pink, cinnamon, vinaceous or yellowish (although cream buff and pale brown colors are
also described). The cap of Arrhenia species most frequently exhibits tones of gray and
brown. The spores of Cudonia circinans are needle-like in shape, in contrast with the
typically elliptic to oboval shapes of Arrhenia species. Among the several species of
Arrhenia documented within the Pacific Northwest, the short or indistinct stalks and
veined caps of A. lobata and A. retiruga are in contrast with the well-formed gills on
mature caps in A. acerosa, and the distinct, upright stalks of A. spathulata. The oboval,
fan-shaped or kidney-shaped caps of A. lobata distinguish it from the A. retiruga with its
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nearly round to bilaterally symmetric caps. An expanded generic concept for Arrhenia is
provided by Redhead (1984).
Life History: Sporocarps of Arrhenia lobata are single or clustered at known sites. All
species of Arrhenia are regarded as "bryophiles" (i.e., consistently associated with
mosses) (Redhead, 1984) and a parasitic relationship between A. lobata and moss
gametophytes has been suggested (Savile and Parmelee, 1964). On the Iberian Peninsula
sporocarps of Arrhenia lobata are found on the moss genera Aulacomnium,
Calliergonella, Drepanocladus and Sphagnum (Barrio et al., 1985; Ortega et al., 1997) genera which are common in the fens of Pacific Northwest. In contrast, sporocarps of
this fungus have never been found on Sphagnum in northern Europe (Hoiland, 1976;
Hallgrimsson, 1981; Gulden, 1988). On the Iberian Peninsula, most sporocarps are found
between April and August and may be primarily produced in spring (Barrasa and Rico,
2003).
Range, Distribution and Abundance: Arrhenia lobata is known from arctic and alpine
areas and is primarily circumboreal in distribution but is also known from the Iberian
Peninsula and central Europe as well as Australia. In North America, the species is
known from Canada (primarily northern and eastern but one site in extreme northwest
BC), Oregon (Wallowa Co.), Washington, Idaho and Colorado.
Habitat Associations: On moss in wet sites, alpine sites or bogs or fens, often around
the margins of pools.
Threats: The mid- to higher elevation wetland/peatland sites occupied by Arrhenia
lobata are susceptible to physical and chemical disturbances that promote successional
processes with the possible resultant loss of rare or uncommon plant taxa. Livestock
commonly damage or destroy wetland/peatland shrubs and herbaceous vegetation,
reducing its annual primary productivity and reproductive success. Soil compaction
caused by livestock has the potential to alter patterns and rates of local water movement
while livestock feces may alter local water chemistry. Water diversions resulting from
adjacent road construction, off-site diversions or impoundments for stock or agriculture,
or on-site drainage efforts to improve forage for livestock, can lower local water tables.
Additionally, habitats suitable for Arrhenia lobata may be susceptible to infestation by
wetland invasives such as Phalaris arundinacea and Cirsium arvense.
Conservation Considerations: Revisit known sites to confirm persistence and better
define the extent of populations. Conduct searches for new populations; include
Arrhenia to list of target species when conducting basic inventories of wetlands/peatlands
at mid- to higher elevations. At known sites or in potential habitat, manage
weatland/peatland to maintain hydrologic regime. Identify opportunities for the
inadvertent introduction of invasive plant species and develop preventative practices to
minimize these risks. Develop a treatment plan for any invasive plant species already
present.
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Conservation Rankings and Status:
Global: G1; Oregon S1
ORNHIC List 3
Prepared by: Rick Dewey, Deschutes National Forest, April 2009
References
Arora, David. 1979. Mushrooms Demystified - A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy
Fungi. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. 959 pp.
Barrasa, Jose and Victor Rico. 2003. The non-omphalinoid species of Arrhenia in the
Iberian Peninsula. Mycologia, 95(4), pp. 700-713.
Barrio, L., G. Moreno and M. Ron. 1985. Contribución al estudio de los hongos que
fructifican sobre los briófitos de las comunidades higroturbosas del Sistema Central
(Guadarrama y Ayllón). Bol Soc Micológica Castellana 9:73-102
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 USFS and OR/WA BLM Interagency
Special Status/Sensitive Species Program (ISSSSP).
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/sfpnw/issssp/planning-tools/
Gibson, Ian. 2007. Veined fungi of the Pacific Northwest. South Vancouver Island
Mycological Society.
http://www.svims.ca/council/Veined.htm
Gulden,G. 1988. Arrhenia lobata (Pers.: Fr.) Redhead. In: Gulden G, Jenssen KM,
Stordal J, eds. Arctic and Alpine Fungi—2.Oslo: Soppkonsulenten. p 25–26
Hallgrímsson, H. 1981. The Agaricales of Iceland (Íslenzkir Hattsveppir). V. Preliminary
account of the Icelandic species of Tricholomataceae. Acta Bot Islandica 6:29-41.
Høiland, K. 1976 The genera Leptoglossum, Arrhenia, Phaeotellus, and
Cyphellostereum in Norway and Svalbard. Norwegian J Bot 23:201-212.
Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center. 2007. Rare, threatened and endangered
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species of Oregon. Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center, Oregon State
University. Portland. 100pp.
http://oregonstate.edu/ornhic/2007_t&e_book.pdf
Ortega, A., F. Esteve-Raventós, M. Villarreal and E. Horak. 1997. The alpine mycobiota
of Sierra Nevada (Andalucía, Spain). Part I. Boll Gruppo Micol G Bresadola 40:367384.
Redhead, Scott. 1984. Arrhenia and Rimbachia, expanded generic concepts, and a
reevaluation of Leptoglossum with emphasis on muscicolous North American taxa. Can.
J. Bot. 62(5): 865-892.
Savile, D. and J. Parmelee. 1964. Parasitic fungi of the Queen Elizabeth Islands.
Canadian J Bot 42:699-722.
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