Leotia lubrica
| Leotia lubrica | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Leotiomycetes |
| Order: | Leotiales |
| Family: | Leotiaceae |
| Genus: | Leotia |
| Species: | L. lubrica |
| Binomial name | |
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Leotia lubrica (Scop.) Pers. (1797) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Leotia lubrica, commonly referred to as a jelly baby, is a species of fungus in the family Leotiaceae. The species produces small fruit bodies up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in height, featuring a "head" and a stalk. Ochre with tints of olive-green, the heads are irregularly shaped, while the stalk, of a similar colour, attaches them to the ground. The appearance can be somewhat variable and is similar to a number of other species, including Cudonia confusa, C. circinans, L. atrovirens and L. viscosa. L. lubrica was first validly described by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, but it was later transferred to Leotia by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon. Its relationship with other members of the genus, of which it is the type species, is complicated.
Growing in woodland among moss, plant detritus or other habitats, the L. lubrica fruit bodies are typically found in large numbers, though they can grow in tight clumps or even individually. The species feeds as a saprotroph. The youngest fruit bodies are small and conical, but the fertile head quickly grows from the stalk. It is often described as inedible, despite its common name, but has also been reported as edible and even good. L. lubrica has been recorded in Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia.
The first species was first validly described scientifically by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in his 1772 work Flora Carniolica exhibens plantas Carnioliae indigenas et distributas in classes, genera, species, varietates, ordine Linnaeano. Scopoli either named the species Elvella lubrica or Helvella lubrica, with the specific name lubrica meaning slimy.Christiaan Hendrik Persoon transferred the species to Leotia, where it remains, in 1794. Other synonyms include Leotia gelatinosa, used by John Hill in 1751,Helvella gelatinosa, used in Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard's Histoire des champignons de la France, and Peziza cornucopiae, a name given by Georg Franz Hoffmann in 1790. The fruit bodies of the mushrooms are typically referred to as jelly babies, but other common names include the lizard tuft, the ochre jelly club, the slippery cap, the green slime fungus, and the gumdrop fungus. The term "yellow jelly babies" is sometimes used to differentiate the species from green jelly babies, Leotia viscosa.
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