Volvopluteus

V. asiaticus V. earlei V. gloiocephalus V. michiganensis Volvopluteus is a genus of small to medium-sized or big saprotrophic mushrooms growing worldwide.

The cap is ovate when young and then expands to convex or flat, it is always viscid to gelatinous when fresh and has white, grey or grey-brown color.

Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia might be present or absent, and this character as well as the size and shape of these structures, can be used for morphologically separating the different species of the genus.

[1] All species of Volvopluteus are saprotrophs, and grow terrestrially in gardens, grassy fields (in or outside forests) and on accumulations of vegetable matter (compost, wood chips).

[4][5] The first comprehensive molecular phylogeny of the Agaricales by Moncalvo et al.[2] sampled two species of Volvariella (V. volvacea and V. hypophytis) that were placed in a distant position from Pluteus.

[1] Volvopluteus differs from Volvariella morphologically by the average spore length over 11 μm and the pileipellis composed of relatively thin hyphae embedded in a conspicuous gelatinous matrix.

Basidiospores of Volvopluteus gloiocephalus
Pileipellis (ixocutis) of Volvopluteus gloiocephalus
Phylogenetic relationships among the species Volvopluteus as inferred from ITS data. Based on the results presented by Justo et al. [ 8 ]