Species flashcards

Description

Cap: 3-10 cm in diameter; convex when young, its margin infolded for a long time, finally spreading; initially pinkish, then salmon-pinkish, becoming apricot-colored with age; its surface is smooth when young, then becomes characteristically network-like veined from the developing wrinkles, with a thick, transparent, peelable gelatinous layer under its skin; may exude orange droplets when young.

Gills: Almost free or curved-adnate; whitish when young, then becoming pale cap-colored.

Stem: 1-6 cm long, 0.3-1.5 cm thick; cylindrical; often lateral; often clustered; whitish or pale salmon-colored; surface silky fibrous or powdery, becoming bare with age.

Flesh: Quite tough, rubbery; whitish, pinkish in the cap, orange-tinged in the stem; pleasant fruity smell, bitter taste.

Spore: Pale pink, 6-9 x 6-7.5 μm, Spherical, covered with fine warts,

Occurrence: From July to October; in wet environments, on dead deciduous wood (mainly elm and beech), a very rare, protected species in Hungary. Known from North Asia, Europe and North America, from lowland regions, a rare species. Widely distributed in Europe, but very rare, only locally occurring species.

Edibility: Not edible.

Confusion: Characteristic, cannot be confused with any other mushroom species. There is no other wood-growing, pinkish, rubbery, veined-capped mushroom, so it cannot be confused with any other species.

Note: At its habitats, forest management, primarily the removal of wood, threatens the survival of the species. In addition to its rarity, its special ecological requirements (sufficiently wet, rotting dead wood) also make it an endangered species. In Great Britain and Europe, the decline of elm trees has also contributed to the decline of the mushroom. palmatus means palmately compound, referring to the veined nature of the cap.

Species description: In 1785, the French naturalist Jean Baptiste Francois (Pierre) Bulliard described it and named it Agaricus palmatus. Another Frenchman, René Charles Joseph Ernest Maire (1878 -1949) transferred this species to a new Rhodotus genus, which he created in 1926, and its name became Rhodotus palmatus. The mushroom is the only one in the genus.

Taxonomy

1. PhylumBasidiomycota
2. ClassAgaricomycetes
3. OrderAgaricales
4. FamilyPhysalacriaceae
5. GenusRhodotus

• Species: palmatus
• Described by: (Bull.) Maire (1926)
• Hungarian name: rózsás tönkgomba, tönkös kacskagomba
• Lifestyle: wood saprotroph
• Edibility: not edible