Matchmaker:
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
Glossary - T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z
This is a list of terms used in mushroom descriptions.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
T
| TERM | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| tacky | slightly sticky but not truly subviscid or viscid |
| tan | leather-colored, similar to undressed leather |
| taproot | a root which grows vertically downward, narrowing from top to bottom |
| tawny | approximately the color of a lion, between yellow brown and rusty brown; used by some as more orange, fox-colored, equivalent to fulvous |
| taxon (plural taxa) | a named form, variety, species etc. |
| tenacious | tough |
| terrestrial | appearing to grow from the ground, or on the ground, as opposed to growing on wood |
| terete | of stem, cylindric or rounded; not compressed or irregular |
| testaceous | brown mixed with yellow or red, close to brick color, in Ridgway 1912, an orangy pink |
| thick | term used for width of stem, depth of cap flesh, or the distance between the faces of one gill |
| tibiiform | of cystidia, somewhat ventricose (wider in middle) with long narrow neck and apex swollen into a head, supposedly like the tibia bone |
| tier | in reference to subgills, group of subgills, interspersed with gills usually at regular intervals, each tier being of roughly a certain length |
| tilleul buff | pallid or whitish |
| tissue | a group of hyphae which are similar in shape or form |
| toadstool | a mushroom, especially a poisonous one |
| tobacco brown | the color of tobacco as it is found in a cigar or cigarette |
| tomentose | covered with soft hairs, often soft densely matted hairs, like a woollen blanket |
| tomentous | same as tomentose |
| tomentulose | covered with short fine hairs or fibrils, which may be matted like a thin woollen blanket or erect according to different authors' interpretations; nearly tomentose but less than subtomentose |
| tomentum | a covering of densely matted woolly hairs |
| toothed | serrate on the edges; toothlike on the edges; of gills, with toothlike edges or decurrent by a short tooth |
| tough | strong, able to resist stress |
| trama | the tissue under the surface cell layers of cap, stem, or gills, usually referring to the flesh (context) as seen through the compound microscope |
| translucent | transmitting light diffusely, semitransparent |
| translucent-striate | refers to a cap that allows some light to pass through and which, as a result, shows the gills as darker radiating lines in the translucent area |
| trichoderm | a "cuticle" with hair-like elements projecting from the surface under the compound microscope, more or less perpendicularly, forming a turf, the individual elements unequal in length |
| trichodermium | same as trichoderm |
| tricholomatoid | resembling in general form the genus Tricholoma, with notched gills, fleshy-fibrous stem, and no ring or volva |
| trimitic | consisting of three kinds of hyphae: generative, binding and skeletal |
| troops | hundreds to even thousands of fruiting bodies growing within a few square yards |
| trullisate | resembling a small planting scoop |
| truncate | larger portion ending as if cut off, having the end square |
| tuber | a fleshy, lump-like or root-like stem base |
| tubercle | any wart-like or knob-like protuberance |
| tuberculate | with low bumps |
| tuberculate-striate (or tuberculous-striate) | of cap margin, furrowed radially with small bumps on the ridges |
| tubular | of stem, having the flesh empty of fibrils, same as fistulose or hollow; of hymenophore, composed of tubes, the opening of which is called a pore |
| tufted | as used here, the same as caespitose; may also be used to mean a small cluster or stems clustered with a common base, see clustered, caespitose, connate |
| tuning fork basidia | basidia of the jelly fungus order Dacrymycetales, shaped like a Y or a tuning fork |
| turbinate | top-shaped; of cystidia, swollen at top, tapered from middle downward, becoming abrupt at base |
| type | the element on which the descriptive matter fulfilling the conditions of valid publication of a scientific name is based; in the case of mushroom species, the collection of fruiting bodies from which the original concept of the taxonomic group (e.g. family, genus, species, variety, etc.) is derived |
| type collection | a collection of fruiting bodies from which the original concept of the taxonomic group (e.g. family, genus, species, variety etc) is derived |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
U
| TERM | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| umber | a deep dull dark brown, smoky brown; earth brown sometimes with a very slight reddish tinge |
| umbilicate | refers to a cap with a narrow, moderate to deep depression in center which may or may not have a small umbo in the bottom |
| umbo | a raised knob or mound at the center of the cap |
| umbonate | having a raised knob or mound at the center of the cap |
| umbrinous | olive-brown; umber |
| uncinate | refers to gills with a lower edge that curves up as it comes close to the stem, then abruptly curved down to leave a "tooth" on stem, not proceeding further down stem than the imaginary line running straight along the lower gill edge to the stem, but sometimes used as equivalent to "decurrent with tooth" |
| undulate | wavy |
| unicolorous | of one color |
| universal veil | the enveloping veil initially covering the whole mushroom including the top of the cap: when it breaks, it may leave fragments on the cap or the stem, or a volva at the base of the stem |
| uplifted | the margin of the cap turning upward |
| upturned | the margin of the cap turning upward |
| urceolate | having the shape of a pitcher, with a large body and small mouth |
| urticoid | with a swollen base and a long gradually narrowed apex |
| utriform | of cystidia, with a slight constriction below a large round head, like a bladder, therefore bladder-shaped |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
V
| TERM | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| vaginatoid | applied to any mushroom with free or finely adnexed gills, a volva, and lacking an annulus |
| velutinous | velvety |
| variety | (abbreviated var.) a consistent appearing variation of a species, with more variation than a form, sufficiently hereditary as to characterize homogeneous populations |
| variety | (abbreviated var.) a consistent appearing variation of a species, with more variation than a form, sufficiently hereditary as to characterize homogeneous populations |
| veil | referring either to the partial veil which joins the stem to the cap edge at first, and often breaks to leave a ring on stem and remnants hanging from the cap margin, or the universal veil which initially covers the whole fruiting body including the top of the cap, always breaking and sometimes leaving fragments on the cap or the stem, or a volva at the base of the stem |
| velar | of the veil |
| velum | same as veil |
| velutinous | like velvet |
| ventricose | wider in the middle |
| vermilion | a bright red color with a strong orange tinge |
| Verona brown | dull cinnamon, dull reddish cinnamon |
| verrucose | with warts; or with outgrowths smaller than if warted but larger than if verruculose (as used here, warty includes verrucose and verruculose) |
| verruculose | with moderate outgrowths smaller than if verrucose |
| versiform | with various shapes |
| vesiculate | of cystidia, with entire cell swollen or appearing inflated like a large sac or bladder (vesicle), with only the base abruptly tapered |
| vesiculose | same as vesiculate |
| Victoria lake | deep red |
| villose | covered with long soft, weak hairs that collapse readily |
| villose-tomentose | having a densely matted layer of long, soft hairs which collapse readily |
| vinaceous | the color of red wine or red wine stains; a paler or grayish red; dull pinkish brown to dull grayish purple |
| vinaceous-drab | purple-gray |
| violaceous | of some violet hue |
| virgate | markedly streaked or striate, usually with dark-colored groups of fibrils, giving the appearance of bearing many small twigs |
| viscid | sticky but not slimy or lubricous: the mushroom usually feels somewhat slimy or slippery when wet but when dry may need to be wetted slightly to feel sticky; sometimes used to include slimy |
| vitelline | egg-yellow |
| volva | the remains o f the universal veil found at the base of the stem, usually in the form of a sac, collar or concentric rings |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
W
| TERM | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| warm buff | pale yellowish buff |
| warm sepia | dark dull vinaceous brown, dark dingy cinnamon |
| wart | bumpy outgrowth found on caps, stems, and spores, which on caps and stems is generally somewhat wider than high |
| waxy | appearing as if coated with wax |
| well-spaced | referring to gills, corresponds to distant |
| white rot | a rot that removes both lignin and cellulose |
| wood brown | dark avellaneous |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
X, Y, Z
| TERM | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Y-shaped basidia | basidia of the jelly fungus order Dacrymycetales, shaped like a Y or a tuning fork |
| zonate | with circular bands of differing colors or ornamentation |
| zoned | same as zonate |