A brown, ringed, ectomycorrhizal agaric of southern beech (Nothofagus) forests in southern South America and the type species of Descolea. It has a chestnut-brown, striate cap often with whitish veil patches, a persistent membranous ring, and lemon-shaped, warty, dextrinoid spores. In 1989 it was found in a Nothofagus plantation in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, the first record from the Northern Hemisphere, probably introduced on the roots of seedlings from Tierra del Fuego.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal with Nothofagus (southern beech). Faroese collections grew under planted Nothofagus, apparently N. betuloides among others, in October.
Distribution
Native to Nothofagaceae forests of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (Argentina and Chile). Introduced in the Faroe Islands (Tórshavn plantation, 1989).
Characteristics
Cap: 20-45 mm, convex to bell-shaped then with a low broad umbo; chestnut brown at centre, paler yellowish brown toward the striate margin; shiny when wet, slightly micaceous when dry; often with whitish universal veil remnants. Gills: free or narrowly attached, fairly crowded, pale ochraceous brown, edge finely serrulate. Stem: 40-70 x 3-6 mm, base swollen to 9 mm, pale ochraceous brown above, yellow-brown below with white fibrils under the ring. Ring: pendant, membranous, persistent, striate above. Odour and taste: indistinct. Spore print: sordid olivaceous yellow (Faroe material). Spores: 11-13.5 x 6-7.5 µm, limoniform with a long apical papilla, verrucose except near the apex, strongly dextrinoid. Microscopy: basidia 4-spored; cheilocystidia 15-35 x 6-11 µm; clamps present.
