Mycetinis alliaceus

Description

Mycetinis alliaceus is one of the larger mushrooms formerly in the genus Marasmius, having a beige cap of up to 4 cm and a long tough slender stipe. It emanates a strong smell of garlic, and this is the significance of the Latin species name, alliaceus. It is distributed throughout Europe, being fairly common in some areas and quite rare in others.

It is edible, but of limited culinary value due to its meager flesh. It can be added to dishes to give a garlic flavor, which could be useful for people who are allergic to real garlic

Common names: Garlic Parachute.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The cap is 2-5 cm in diameter, convex and spread out, the edges are translucent. The surface is glabrous, smooth, initially white, whitish, brown-cream, dark yellow, red-brown, gray, and lightens with age, with a lighter, scarred, pubescent edge.

2. Gills

   The hymenophore is lamellar. Plates are thick, free, with intermediate plates, with jagged edges, whitish, grayish, and pinkish-white.

3. Stem

   The stem is 4-20 cm high, 0.1-0.5 cm in diameter, cylindrical or flattened, hollow, slightly scarred, brown-gray, black, almost black, lighter at the top, covered with a mealy coating, with a long root process, at the base with gray mycelium.

4. Flesh

   The flesh is thin, and whitish, with a strong smell and taste of garlic.

5. Spores

   7-11 * 5.5-8.5 μm, broadly elliptical or almond-shaped.

6. Spore Print

   White.

7. Habitat

   Grows from June to November, in deciduous and coniferous forests, more often in beech, on soil, on rotten wood.

Look-Alikes

1. Marasmius scorodonius (syn. Mycetinis scorodonius) – Edible

2. Gymnopus dryophilus (syn. Collybia dryophila) – Edible

3. Gymnopus peronatus (syn. Collybia peronata) – Inedible, very fast-growing

4. Laccaria proxima – Edible

5. Marasmius cohaerens – Worthless, found on rotting conifer wood

6. Marasmius lupuletorum (syn. Marasmius torquescens) – Inedible, fibrous, grows on beech logs, blue-black leg

7. Marasmius rotula – Inedible, fibrous, found on rotting beech wood

8. Marasmius wynnei – Inedible, found on rotting trunks, purple tones, unpleasant smell

9. Clitocybe dealbata – Deadly, with dense lamellae and flour-like smell

10. Clitocybe rivulosa – Deadly, dense lamellae, no distinct smell

11. Conocybe filaris (syn. Pholiotina filaris) – Lethal

History

This species was originally documented by Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin in 1773 and subsequently it was long known as Marasmius alliaceus, a designation established by Elias Magnus Fries. It gave its name to the section Alliacei of genus Marasmius until following a 2005 paper it was decided to separate this group off into genus Mycetinis (see that page for more details). The most likely species to be confused is the fairly common Mycetinis scorodonius, which is distinguished by a bare shiny red-brown stem. Mycetinis querceus (once wrongly identified with: M. prasiosmus) has a velvety stem like M. alliaceus, but the colour is purple-brown.

Related garlic-smelling species also occur in America; examples are Marasmius perlongispermus and Mycetinis copelandii.

Video

Synonyms

1. Agaricus alliaceus Jacq., 1762

2. Marasmius alliaceus (Jacq.) Fr., 1838

3. Agaricus dolinensis Stephan Schulzer von MüggenburgSchulzer, 1870

4. Mycena alliacea (Jacq.) P. Kumm., 1871

5. Chamaeceras alliaceus (Jacq.) Kuntze, 1898

6. Marasmius alliaceus var. subtilis JE Lange, 1921

Photo copyright:

All photos were taken by the Ultimate Mushroom team and can be used for your own purposes under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.