On the type of Coprinus asterophoroides Van De Bogart
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Original description
Coprinus asterophoroides Van De Bogart in Mycotaxon 4: 252. 1976 (The genus Coprinus in Western North America, part 1: sect. Coprinus).
Holotype: North America: Washington, Beverly, 5 Aug. 1974, F. Van De Bogart 3333 (WTU).

Pileus at first rounded, then hemispherical, then campanulate, then plane, and finally mostly lysed, when unexpanded 2.0-3.0 cm long, expanding to 4.0-6.0 cm broad. Universal veil white when young, then cuticle darkening to black or blackish brown as universal veil recedes, apex remaining white with universal veil. Universal veil of a felt-like consistency, very thick, soor torn into a distinctly stellate persistent remnant as pileus expands. Pileal surface becoming deeply plicate striate. Pileal margin becoming revolute or curling under and eventually reduced to tattered shreds. Stipe hollow, slender, 7.0-11.5 cm x 3.0-6.0 mm. Stipe lumen with a distinct and persistent hyphal strand in the center. Surface mostly smooth and glabrous, some appressed fibrils near the bottom or occasionally small scales on the lower half. White at first, then slowly blackening as lysis proceeds, opaque. Flesh very thin and fragile. Lamellae lanceolate, free and remote, very crowded, soot black when mature, autolysis complete.
Spores ovate to ovate-ellipsoidal, slightly flattened, 17.5-20.0 x 11.2-12.5 µm, apiculus usually small, germ pore apical to very eccentric, 1.8 µm in diameter. Color soot black en masse and a dark brownish purple-black microscopically in 3% KOH. Wall smooth. Basidia trimorphic, short clavate and 35.0-39.0 x 20.0-22.5 µm, clavate and 50.0-54.0 x 20.0-22.5 µm, subululiform and 52.0-61.5 x 20.0-21.5 µm, sterigmata with dark somewhat refractive plugs, apex of basidia dark grey-brown, all four-spored. Cystidia not seen. Pileal surface of slender, cylindrical, radially aligned, thin-walled hyphae. Many hyphae with irregular patches of dark brown pigment on the cell walls. Universal veil composed of long parallel, radially aligned chains of long, often somewhat swollen cells, constricted at the septae, larger cells of the chains bound together by slender, branched and anastomosed hyphae. All cells of universal veil hyaline and thin walled. Large cells 12.5-63.5 µm in diameter. Cells of the binding hyphae 3.5-11.0 µm in diameter. Clamp-connections present in universal veil and rarely on the stipe, usually very irregular.
Habitat. Terrestrial, on dandy soil in dry open sagebrush desert area.

This species is closely related to C. astrophorus Long & Miller and to C. xerophilus Van De Bogart. It shares many morphological features as well as the arid habitat with both. C. asterophoroides differs from C. asterophorus in possessing a distinct and persistent hyphal strand in the stipe lumen, the universal veil remaining white even when dried, the germ pore often very eccentric, the much larger diameter of the universal veil elements, the absence of a bulbous volvate stipe base, and the larger and much broader basidia with pigmented apices. C. asterophoroides differs from C. xerophilus in the universal veil remaining stellate, the smaller germ pore, the absence of a bulbous volvate stipe base, and the pigmented apex of the basidia.

Observations
Spores [40,2,1] 14.8-20.6 x 10.7-14.2 x c. 11.5-12.0 µm, ovoid or ellipsoid with rounded base and apex, and eccentric, 1.8-2.1 µm wide germ pore, very dark red-brown; Q = 1.40-1.65, av. Q = 1.45-1.50; av. L = 17.4-18.6, av. B = 11.6-12.8 µm. Basidia 32-60 x 20-25 µm, 4-spored. Pseudoparaphyses and cystidia collapsed. Veil made up of hyphoid, thin-walled elements, 20-150 x 20-50(-60) µm, usually somewhat inflated and constricted at septa; terminal cells ellipsoid or clavate. Clamp-connections not found.

Notes: The material consists of two old basidiocarps. Therefore no cystidia could be localized and no pseudoparaphyses could be found.
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