Mushroom Trivia
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Top Ten

hairy

Terms discussed: canescent, fibril (pl. fibrils), furry, hispid, pilose, pubescent, strigose, tomentose, tomentum, velutinate, velutinous, velvety, villose, villus (pl. villi), virgate

Well, okay, the word "hairy" itself doesn't need much explaining; but the more technical terms for calling a cap surface hairy do. The "hair"s on a mushroom are actually individual strands of hyphae protruding from a fruiting body, and yes, they're only a single cell thick. They have different names depending on their texture, numbers, and the visual effects they produce.
To describe the texture that results when these hyphae end up woven or matted together, several authors use analogies to fabrics, comparing the fungal texture to felt, flannel, or a woolen blanket. I have discarded these analogies, as it wasn't clear to me whether the authors were thinking of the texture of the hairs coming off of the fabric, or the main body of the fabric itself.


Topics:
canescent
fibril
hirsute
hispid
pilose
pubescent
strigose
tomentose
velutinate
villose
virgate

      

canescent



Image of Coprinus cinereus from Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (1816 - 1817) Das System der Pilze und Schwämme
Coprinus cinereus
with a dense layer of fine grey or white hairs, giving the surface a frosted appearance
      

fibril


Fibril is the most general term for a protruding hypha, and the most general term for a hairy texture is fibrillose.
Fibrillose is also used to describe the texture of a partial veil, and is described in more detail there.

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hirsute


Covered with long (2 mm or longer), stiff hairs.
      

hispid


An ambiguous term.
Snell & Dick (1957) seem to define this as a more general version of hirsute (i.e. any covering of stiff hairs), or perhaps like hirsute with but with shorter hairs. D. L. Largent (1986) defines it as hirsute with the hairs more flexible.

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pilose


If the hairs are long (longer than 2 mm), soft, fine, and very close together, forming a plush surface, the surface is pilose.
It's like velutinous, but with longer hairs
      

pubescent


If the hairs are short (less than 1 mm) and soft, but not close enough to be velutinate, the surface is pubescent. The hairy covering itself is called pubescence.
I try to use this term as little as possible, so my site doesn't get blocked by those net censorship programs.

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strigose


If the hairs are long (over 2 mm), coarse, and stiff, the surface is called strigose.
      

tomentose


If the hairs are densely matted and wooly, the surface is tomentose, and the mat of hairs is called a tomentum.
      

velutinate


If the hairs are short (less than 1 mm), soft, fine, and very close together, forming a velvety surface, the surface is velutinate or velutinous.
      

villose


If the surface is covered with long (longer than 2 mm), soft hairs (or villi) laying down on the surface, it is said to be villose.
      

virgate



Photo of Cortinarius JD1 by John Denk
Cortinarius JD1
The hairs plastered tight to the surface, and clumping together a few at a time to form lots of little streaks.

 

 


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