Contribution to the Study of Xylophallus Xylogenus

SUMMARY

A new collection of Xylophallus xylogenus, made at the same latitude as the type, confirms rotting wood as its natural substrate. The unpleasant odor of its gleba, typical of the phalloids, and its attraction to insects are reported. From study of sections of the fruiting body in different stages of development, we conclude that the gleba is not interrupted from its origin and thus the axial tissue never reaches the volva. The prosenchymatous internal layer of the volva is intimately connected with the “veins” of the gleba and becomes part of its lacunose system. The presence of a pore at the apex of the receptacle in unopened eggs is confirmed. As fruiting bodies mature, the pore becomes wider. The apparent continuity between the axial tissue and the volva in one specimen is assumed to result from swelling of one of the apical “veins” of the gleba due to pressure exerted by elongation of the stalk. When stained with safranin, the hyaline spores show a central zone of red cytoplasm surrounded by a large colorless portion. In material mounted in Amann's lactophenol with cotton blue, the spores mostly have a vacuole at both ends of the long axis; however, spores occasionally have three vacuoles or just one central vacuole. That the only known collections of X. xylogenus were made at the same latitude seems to confirm the narrow distribution of the species and its rarity. Xyllophallus xylogenusgrows on wood in rather large colonies with the fruiting bodies joined by stolon-like rhizomorphs.