Ileodictyon graceful (Ileodictyon gracile)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Phallomycetidae (Veselkovye)
- Order: Phallales (Merry)
- Family: Phallaceae (Veyolkovye)
- Genus: Ileodictyon (Ileodiction)
- Species: Ileodictyon gracile (Ileodictyon graceful)
Synonyms :
Basket basket white
- Clathrus white
- Clathrus graceful
- Clathrus gracilis
- Clathrus cibarius f. gracilis
- Ileodictyon cibarium var. gracile
- Clathrus cibarius var. gracilis
- Clathrus intermedius
Description
One of Australia's most common funky, Ileodiktion graceful looks like a graceful, white cage. Unlike many similar mushrooms, it often breaks off the base, which causes some associations with tumbleweeds, you involuntarily wonder if it rolls like a tiny smelly ball of wire across the Australian fields? Ileodiction edible - a similar species with thicker, softer membranes, it is more common in New Zealand. Both species were introduced to other regions of the world (Africa, Europe, Pacific Ocean) as a result of human activity.
Ecology
Saprophyte. Grows singly or in groups on soil and litter in forests or in cultivated areas, all year round in tropical and subtropical regions of Australia, Tasmania, Samoa, Japan, Africa and Europe.
External description
Fruit body : Initially whitish spherical "egg" up to 3 centimeters across, with white mycelium strands. The egg does not burst gradually, but rather “explodes”, splitting, as a rule, into 4 petals. From it "jumps out", an adult fruiting body, unfolding into a kind of rounded checkered structure, from 4 to 20 centimeters in diameter, consisting of 10-30 cells. The cells are mostly pentagonal.
The lintels are smooth, slightly flattened, about 5 mm in diameter. Clear thickenings are visible at the intersections. The color is white, whitish. The inner surface of this "cell" is covered with a layer of spore-bearing mucus of olive, olive-brown color.
The torn egg remains for some time in the form of a volva at the base of the fruiting body, however, the mature structure can break away from it.
The smell has been described as "offensive, offensive" or sour milk.
Microscopic characteristics : Spores are hyaline, (4-) 4.5-5.5 (-6) x 1.8-2.4 μm, narrowly ellipsoidal, smooth, thin-walled. Basidia 15-25 x 4-6 microns. Cystidia are absent.
Spread
Australia, Tasmania, Samoa, Japan, South Africa, East Africa (Burundi), West Africa (Ghana), North Africa (Morocco), Europe (Portugal).
Edibility
The mushroom is probably edible in the "egg" stage, while it does not yet have that specific smell characteristic of many adult merry fruiting bodies.
Similar species
As already noted above, Ileodiktion edible is very similar, its "cage" is slightly larger, and the lintels are thicker.
A photo from mushroomexpert.com is used as an illustration.