On the type of Coprinus sylvicola
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Original description
Coprinus sylvicola Van De Bogart in Mycotaxon 8: 257. 1979 (The genus Coprinus in Western North America, part 2: sect. Lanatuli). Holotype: North America: state Oregon, Camp Kilowan, 27 Apr. 1972, F. Van De Bogart 297 (WTU).

Pileus at first long, slightly tapered from base to apex but almost cylindrical, with the apex obtusely rounded, becoming conic, then campanulate with a flaring margin, and finally revolute, prior to expansion 1.5-2.0 cm in length and after expansion 1.8-2.3 cm in breadth, medium grey and apex medium grey-brown at first, but soon becoming generally dark grey and dark grey-brown at the apex. Some plicate striations present early under the universal veil and often prominent in partially expanded pilei. Surface almost smooth but close examination reveals minute reddish brown scales or filaments. Flesh thin. Stipe hollow, slender, slightly tapered from base to apex, 7.0-9.0 cm x 1.5-2.5 mm, greyish to dirty white, opaque. Surface mostly smooth and glabrous but with a few appressed scalelike patches on lower one-third of stipe. Flesh thin, fragile, and brittle. Lamellae narrowly linear-lanceolate, few, if any, lamellulae, 1.8 cm x 1.5-2.0 mm, free and remote, extremely crowded at first then subdistant due to development of plicate striations as pileus expands, white, then pale reddish brown, then dark blackish brown, and finally soot black. Autodigestion destroying most of each lamella and most of the rest of the pileus. Odor and taste none.
Spores ellipsoidal with tapering ends nearly round in cross-section, 13.7-15.0 x 7.2-7.8 µm, lacking a perisporium, apiculus large and prominent, germ pore apical, 1.0-1.2 µm in diameter, Color soot black en masse, microscopically deep purple-black in 3% KOH. Walls smooth. Basidia variable in shape and size. The shapes intergrade from clavate to long clavate to subululiform ululiform, and sizes range from 25.0-51.0 x 10.0-12.0 µm. All four-spored. Cheilocystidia ovate to ellipsoidal, 48.0-77.5 x 22.5-40.0 µm, hyaline, thin walled, smooth. Some hyaline, smooth, thin walled, branched and anastomosed cylindric hyphae 1.5-6.3 µm in diameter present, also along lamellar margin. Pleurocystidia ovate to ellipsoidal, 63.0-75.5 x 30.0-40.0 µm, hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, few in number and present mostly near the lamellar margin. No other cystidia present. Pileal surface of radially oriented hyphae. Universal veil on pileus and at base of stipe of loose scales composed of long chains of swollen cells, 38.0-102.0 x 3.0-25.0 µm, constricted at the septa, hyaline, thin walled, smooth, seldom branched. Pileal context pallid yellow-brown in 3% KOH. The subhymenium of each side of each Lamella is aLso yellow-brown in 3% KOH while the thin layer of median lamellar trama is hyaline. Clamp-connections present on stipe, universal veil, pileal trama, and lamellar trama.
Habitat. Terrestrial or sublignicolous, on leaves and debris among chunks of rotten conifer wood lying on the soil in an old second-growth mixed forest. Small loose groups.

This species is notable for the variation and intergradation in sizes and shapes of the basidia, the very long, almost cylindrical shape of the unexpanded pileus, and the yellow-brown color of the pileus context and the subhymenium.

Observations:
Spores [20,1,1] 11.8-13.8 x 7.1-7.9 µm, ellipsoid or ovoid with somewhat conical base and rather truncate apex, and central, c. 1.6 µm wide germ pore, very dark red-brown; Q = 1.60-1.90, av. Q = 1.75; av. L = 13.2, av. B = 7.5 µm. Basidia, pseudoparaphyses, cystidia and veil collapsed. Clamp-connections present.

Notes: The material is very bad. Two old specimens, no young ones.
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