Agaricus deserticola is a species of fungus in the family Agaricaceae. Found only in southwestern and western North America, it is adapted for growth in dry or semi-arid habitats. Unlike other Agaricus species, A.deserticola does not develop true gills.
About Agaricus deserticola in brief
Agaricus deserticola is a species of fungus in the family Agaricaceae. Found only in southwestern and western North America, it is adapted for growth in dry or semi-arid habitats. The fruit bodies are secotioid, meaning the spores are not forcibly discharged, and the cap does not fully expand. Unlike other Agaricus species, A. deserticola does not develop true gills, but rather a convoluted and networked system of spore-producing tissue called a gleba. The edibility of A. desERTicola mushrooms is not known definitively. The species was first described scientifically as Secotium texense by Miles Joseph Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis in 1873, based on specimens sent to them from western Texas. In 2010, its specific epithet was changed to Deserticola after it was discovered that the name AgAricus texensis was illegitimate, having been previously published for a different species. The mushroom is commonly known as the gasteroid Agarica. It was thought by some mycologists to be a member of the Gastercomycetes, a grouping of fungi in the basidiomycota that do not actively discharge their spores. The classification of Agaricoa has been under debate since the 1980s, when the taxon was first classified under the taxonomic category of basidiocrypta.
The fungus was transferred to the genus Agaricas in 2004 after molecular analysis showed it to be closely related to species in that genus. It can reach heights of 18 cm tall with caps that are up to 7. 5 cm wide. Fruit bodies grow singly or scattered on the ground in fields, grasslands, or arid ecosystems. Other mushrooms with which A. A.desertiola might be confused include the desert fungus species Podaxis pistillaris and Montagnea arenaria. It has been known by this name for about 60 years, until a 2004 phylogenetic study revealed the species’s close evolutionary relationship with Agarici. The generic name was to honor William Henry Long, an American mycologist noted for his work in describing GasteromyCetes. In 1945, Zeller pointed out that the use of the name Longia was untenable, as it had already been used for a genus of rusts described by Hans Sydow in 1921, so he proposed the new combination Longula texensis in addition to L. texensis var. major. This resulted in a new name in the genus Longia with Longia texensis as the type species.
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This page is based on the article Agaricus deserticola published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.