A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Floccus,-i (s.m.II), abl. sg. flocco: a loosely held together tuft, lock or flock of hairs, wool; a woolly filament sometimes occuring with the sporules of certain fungi [and unassociated with mycelia] (Webster); (in plural: flocci) “woolly threads, found mixed with sporules in Fungals; also any wool-like hairs” (Lindley); (fungi) (in plural: flocci) “cotton-like groups or tufts” (Ainsworth & Bisby); (fungi) (in plural) “(on the pileus or the stipe) small points or tufts resembling cotton” (S&D); a mass of hyphal filaments or portion of mycelium of a fungus (Merriam-Webster); hyphæ or thread-like cells which compose the mycelium of a fungus, especially when they resemble fine wool (Wordnik); “a woolly filament sometimes occuring with the sporules of certain fungi” (Web.Rev.Unabr.Dict.) [> L. floccus,-i (s.m.I) “a lock or flock (of wool, on clothes, in fruits, etc.)” (Lewis & Short); see tuft; cf. lana,-ae (s.f.I), ‘wool;’see tuft;

- [Lepiota colubrinus; fungus] stipes, praecipue in ‘a,’ flocco mollissimo sericeo obductus(S&A), the stipe especially in ‘a,’covered with a very soft, silky wool.

- (fungi) stipitis color eleganter roseus per floccos laxos sericeos flavicantes sub annulo persistentes transparet (S&A), the color of the stipe is rose-colored becoming yellowish under the annulus through the persistent, loose, silky cottony-tufts.

- [fungus] In [var. g], loco humido caeduo semel lecta Septembri, flocci volvae diruptae superstites in pileo ac stipite cernuntur(S&A), in var. g., in a moist place ‘suitable for cutting’ [i.e. coppice or copse wood] once collected in September, the surviving flocci of the severed volva discerned on the pileus and stipe.

NOTE: in Gilbert Burnett, Outlines of botany (1835), various fungi have ‘flocci,’ or fibrous, cottony elements, associated with the peridium (perdium floccular), the flocci may expand elastically; the sporidia may be floccular, intermixed with the flocci; the flocci may be white, brown, brownish-purple, orange (Agaricus flavo-floccosus): Spumariaceae: with spurious peridia “being either membrano-cellular, or formed of flocci, loosely interwoven,” their naked sporidia “being rarely intermixed with flocci;” Trichodermidae: peridium may be flossose, or scaly and floccose, “internal flocci none;” Onygenidae, the peridium is “at first fleshy, afterwards flocculent and scaly. Internal flocci none;” Hyphelidae, peridium “formed of interwoven flocci ... Sporidia crowded; and not intermixed with flocci;” Spumaridae: the sporidia are “crowded, but intermixed with flocci;” Bovistidae, where the “flocci are abundant, and woven together into a soft sporangium. The sporidia are attached to the flocci, not crowded together, but dispersed in equal groups.” Gilbert’s Byssaceae (including Byssus, Monilia and Aspergillus) has external sporidia “and the flocci of the thallus being free or subdiscrete.” Racodia has “non-articulate” flocci “although in the divisions obscure septa may be traced; while in the Bysseae or Byssidae, the flocci are jointed, moniliform, and discrete.”

In the Bovistinae (fungi) “the bulk of each fungus is formed of interwoven tufts of filaments (flocci), interspersed with numerous sporidia, but not contained in asci,... the mass of flocci is collectively called a sporangium; and the tunic which invests it a peridium.” (Burnett)

Samuel Gray: Peridium pedicelled; flocci many = Craterium

Peridium sessile; flocci 0 = Pyxidium

In the Lycoperdonideae, the peridia are double, “the outer separating in scaly, prickly flocci, or regularly formed pieces; the inner membranaceous, of interwoven fibers, torn by the expansion of the flocci” (S. Gray).

- Per areolas floccosve minores nascitur, his vero dein subsidentibus, late lignis vetustis putrescentibus, unde enascitur, superinducitur, & hanc ob causam herpeti comparavit Doody (Dill.), it orignates [i.e.starts out] through minor areolae [i.e. small areas] or flocks [i.e. cottony tufts], however with these sinking in, extensively in old, putrescent woods, from there it springs up [i.e. emerges], covering over [i.e. the wood], and for this reason Doody compared it to herpes.