Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae (Agaricomycetes, Hygrophoraceae ): an arctic-alpine species new to the South-Eastern Carpathians (Romania)

Ronikier A .: Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae (Agaricomycetes, Hygrophoraceae): an arctic-alpine species new to the South-Eastern Carpathians (Romania). Acta Mycol. 45 (1): 37–43, 2010. new localities of Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae were observed during the research on the fungi of the alpine zone in the Carpathians. This is the first record of this arctic-alpine fungus in the South-eastern Carpathians. Macro- and micromorphological characters of the Carpathian collections are compared with the descriptions from other regions. A revision of literature data indicates that the sites in the Parâng Mts reported here are the only known localities of the species from the entire Carpathian range.

intRoDuCtion Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae kühner is one of the arctic-alpine representatives of the genus.it belongs to the section Coccineae Fayod, subsection Coccineae (Bataille) Singer, and is characterized by an orange-reddish lubricous pileus, adnate lamellae, a reddish to yellow lubricous or moist stipe and a distinctly acrid or bitter taste (Boertmann 2000).the fungus is known from high-mountain belts of the european mountains as well as from subarctic and arctic regions (Boertmann 2000(Boertmann , 2008)).Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae was recorded at a few new localities during the research on the fungi of the alpine belt of the Southern Carpathians.this is the first report of the species from the South-Eastern Carpathians.The aim of this paper is to present the new data, give a detailed description of the Southern-Carpathian collections and compare them with the descriptions from other regions available in the literature.the distribution of the species in the Carpathian chain is also revised.

MAteRiAL AnD MethoDS
the material was collected in August 2009 at a few localities in the Parâng Mts. in the Southern Carpathians (Romania).Colours were described using field notes of fresh collections with colour annotations based on kornerup and Wanscher (1965).
All measurements were made in 5% koh or Congo Red under an oil immersion lens.the spores for measurements (20 per collection) were taken from a natural spore deposit present at stipe apex or only mature spores floating in the preparation were measured.the average and the quotients of the length and width of spores (Q) as well as average quotients (Q av ) were calculated.Drawings of microcharacters were made with the aid of a drawing tube (nikon Y-iDt).Specimens are deposited in the herbarium of the W. Szafer institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, kraków (kRAM).
Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae has been reported from the Alps (kühner 1977;kühner, Lamoure 1986;hausknecht et al. 2003;Jamoni 2006), the norwegian mountains (Boertmann 2000;Gulden 2005), Finland (Candusso 1997), the Pyrenees (Vila et al. 1998;Corriol 2008), Greenland (Borgen, Arnolds 2004;Borgen 2006) and the tatra Mts. in the Western Carpathians (kautmanová 1998; Škubla 1998, but see comment below).the fungus is most frequently recorded in snowbeds with Salix herbacea.this type of vegetation usually occurs on poor, acidic soils (Lauber, Wagner 2001;Dúbravcova 2007).the three new Southern Carpathian collections of the species were also observed on granitic (acidic) bedrock, in nutrient-poor vegetation with S. herbacea.however, it seems that the fungus is not strictly associated with snowbed vegetation and its co-occurrence with S. herbacea may be due to similar ecological preferences toward nutrient-poor soils.the fungus was reported from Finland and Greenland at localities without S. herbacea observed nearby (Candusso 1997;Borgen, Arnolds 2004).the soil was most probably acidic at the Finnish locality as Sphagnum was growing there (Candusso 1997).Also in Greenland the fungus was always collected on acidic soils (t.Borgen, pers. comm.).
there is one report of Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae from a calcareous massif in the tatra Mts.(kautmanová 1998; Škubla 1998).Although the description provided matches the characteristics of the species quite well, this record seems to be doubtful in my opinion.As mentioned above, the species has never been reported from calcareous soils and prefers nutrient-poor sites mostly with Salix herbacea.in the tatra Mts., it was recorded near Salix reticulata (not mentioned in the text, but depicted in the drawing; kautmanová 1998), which never occurs on acidic soils (e.g., Lauber, Wagner 2001).the pileus surface of H. salicis-herbaceae is usually described as lubricous, glabrous or even initially viscid (kühner 1977;Candusso 1997;Boertmann 2000;Borgen, Arnolds 2004) and only finely nodulose or veined (Boertmann 2000).kautmanová (1998) also describes the pileus surface as smooth, shining and lubricous: "hladký, lesklý a slizký", but the pileus surface seems to be minutely squamulose in the drawing included.unfortunately, the collection from the tatra Mts. was not available to me for study.until the specimen is revised, the locality of H. salicis-herbaceae in the tatra Mts. must be regarded as doubtful.
there are ten Hygrocybe species known from the alpine belt of the Carpathinas, of which H. turunda and, it seems, also H. salicis-herbaceae are known only from the South-eastern part of the range.

Fig. 4 .
Fig. 4. The distribution of Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae in the Carpathians.White circles -certain localities, empty circle -uncertain locality (see explanation in the text).Upper right inset -location of the Carpathian massif in Central Europe.Lower left insetlocalities of H. salicis-herbaceae in the Parâng Mts, dark grey area -the alpine belt.