Rhodotus palmatus

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Tricholomataceae > Rhodotus . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

When it's being picturesque, Rhodotus palmatus is a stunning and unmistakeable mushroom--or so they tell me. I wouldn't know, since I only find it looking as though it has a droopy, slimy hangover. In its oft-photographed state the cap features an elaborate network of ridges and veins--but Rhodotus palmatus can also be found (more commonly, if my experience is indicative) without these ridges, at which point identification is more challenging: look for the thick and rubbery cap, the dull orangish color, the pinkish spore print, and the habitat on well decayed, wet wood in stream beds from the Great Plains eastward.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or (more commonly) in troops on the wet, well decayed wood of hardwoods; late spring through fall; widely distributed east of the Great Plains.

Cap: 2-9 cm; convex with an incurved margin when young, becoming broadly convex or flat; slimy and gelatinous; conspicuously netted with whitish ridges and veins--or without veins and ridges; salmon to pinkish orange.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close; whitish when young, becoming pink to salmon from spores.

Stem: 1.5 to 5 cm long; up to 1 cm thick; pinkish; slightly hairy; often off-center; tough.

Flesh: Pinkish; rubbery and gelatinous.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste mild.

Chemical Reactions: All surfaces instantly dark green with iron salts; negative with KOH.

Spore Print: Pinkish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-9 x 6-7.5 µ; subglobose; finely warted; inamyloid. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia fusiform to lageniform; to about 50 x 8 µ. Pileipellis hymeniform.

REFERENCES: (Bulliard, 1785) Maire, 1926. (Fries, 1821; Saccardo, 1887; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Lincoff, 1992; Horn, Kay & Abel, 1993; Sundberg, Methven & Monoson, 1997; Barron, 1999; McNeil, 2006; Miller & Miller, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 05280403.

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