A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Byssus,-i (s.f.II), abl.sg. bysso: fine flax; “the stipe of certain Fungals” (Lindley); “byssus Auct. is based on mycelium, etc.” (Ainsworth & Bisby);

- disci squamulae vix ullae, contra in fungo senili byssus saepe praesens mucoriformis albida sparsa (S&A), the squamules of the disc scarcely any, in contrast to the the [mycelium] present in the old fungus, sparse, whitish, mucoriform.

The fungus genera: Byssitheca; Byssocallis; Byssocaulon; Byssochlamys; Byssocladium; Byssocorticium; Byssocystis; Byssogene; Byssolophis; Byssonectria; Byssosphaeria; Byssostilbe; Byssothecium (Ainsworth & Bisby).

NOTE: the feminine gender of byssus,-i.

NOTE: the Byssi are [perhaps] the mycelial fungi, the Fungi Imperfecti, or Deuteromycetes, or Deuteromycota, or anamorphic fungi or mitosporic fungi; this name may also indicate the Mycelia Sterilia: “Early mycologists gave names to collections of sclerotia, rhizomorphs, and other mycelial structures, but later a number of these names went out of use when it was seen that the structures named were only sterile parts of common fungi. Mycelia Sterilia may be states of Basidiomycetes, Ascomycetes, or other Fungi Imperfecti” (Ainsworth & Bisby).

- Fungorum et Byssorum illustrationes quos ut plurimum novos, trecentos et ultra cum caeteris minus bene cognitis, in diversis Europae regionibus collegit, ad vivum delineavit, sculpsit et coloribus naturalibus decoravit 1837 François Fulgis Chevallier (1796, Paris – 1840):

Illustrations of Fungi and Byssi] which, for the most part, are new, three hundred and more with the rest less well known, collected in the different regions of Europe, drawn from life, engraved and decorated with natural colors.