Lyophyllum loricatum

Description

Lyophyllum loricatum is a basidiomycete mushroom belonging to the Tricholomataceae family.

It is a blackish brown to dark brown mushroom, with a hoary sheen and a thick cartilaginous cap cuticle. It grows mainly in lighted areas of forests, on roadsides, gardens, parks, etc. It occurs from summer to autumn. Fruiting bodies often grow in bunches.

The flesh is firmly cartilaginous, with a typical alcoholic smell (sour-flourish).

Common names: Frosty Lyophyllum.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   3-12cm across, hemispheric becoming flat, sometimes slightly umbonate or somewhat indented, pliant, cartilaginous; hygrophanous, dark olive-brown to chestnut-brown; "often +/- veined, tuberculate to wrinkled, satiny", up to 13cm across, "changing from very dark, blackish brown with a hoary sheen to chestnut", "finally to pale tan when overmature and full of insects", 5-10cm across, dark gray brown to olive brown, cap cuticle "thick, somewhat veined and ribbed", 5-10cm across, "chestnut-sepia-brown, olive-umber", "as if armored with thick cartilaginous skin, tuberculate-wrinkled", initially blackish, then the cuticle breaking up into tiny granules as the surface expands, revealing the white background and giving the surface a spotted or speckled look.

2. Flesh

   Thick in the center, thin toward the margin, elastic, tough (especially cuticle) - when broken the cap gives a distinct snapping sound; whitish, brownish under cap surface, solid; white, tough to cartilaginous, firm-cartilaginous.

3. Gills

   Broadly adnate to somewhat notched and sometimes subdecurrent as a tooth", 56-65 gills reaching stem, broad, 3-7(11) subgills between each pair of gills; whitish to gray-whitish; edges smooth, adnate, close, later relatively distant, some interconnecting veins; whitish, edges yellowing; edges eroded, tough; white-pale.

4. Stem

   3.5-9cm x 0.7-1.5cm, cylindric, "corticate, elastic, solid"; cream to pale brownish, gray-brown when old; almost smooth, longitudinally fibrillose, white-powdered at the top, (Breitenbach), up to 8cm long and up to 4cm wide, strongly cespitose [in tufts], "often fused and not only at the base, irregularly shaped"; white, a bit brownish, 5-10cm x 1-1.5cm, pale brownish; apex floury.

5. Odor

   Herbaceous, slight.

6. Taste

   Mild, not distinctive, at times somewhat peppery, with a somewhat burning aftertaste, somewhat burnt.

7. Spore Print

   White.

8. Microscopic Features

   Spores 5-6 x 4.5-5.3 microns, nearly round, smooth, iodine negative; basidia 4-spored, 28-32 x 7-8 microns, narrowly clavate, with basal clamp connection, with siderophilic granules; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not seen; cap cuticle "of +/- parallel and densely intertwined hyphae" 2-4 microns across, "uppermost layer slightly gelatinized, brown-pigmented", septa with clamp connections, spores 6-7 x 6-7 microns, round.

Look-Alikes

1. Lyophyllum calabrum

   Has a hat with pale brownish pink colors, quite original and distinctive compared to other European species. Localized and known in Calabria.

2. Lyophyllum decastes

   Characterized by its gray-brown, ash-gray hat, bushy growth, posture and consistency of brittle meat.

3. Lyophyllum littorale

   Very similar to Lepista panaeola , for the hat with an abundant pruinosità, decorated with blackish guttule, has subglobose spores and characteristic habitat in maritime pine groves on sandy ground.

4. Lyophyllum conglobatum

   Has a characteristic growth, with bushy specimens that develop from a basal fleshy mass, very buried. It has dark gray colors.

History

The term Lyophyllum comes from the Greek λύω lýo dissolve, separate, break and from φύλλον phýllon leaf, lamella: for the lamella without conjunctions, without anastomosis. The specific epithet loricatum comes from armored, from loríca armor.

Synonyms

1. Agaricus loricatus Fr., Epicrisis systematis mycologici (Uppsala): 37 (1838)

2. Clitocybe cartilaginea sensu auct. mult.; fide Checklist of Basidiomycota of Great Britain and Ireland (2005)

3. Lyophyllum loricatum (Fr.) Kühner, Bulletin Mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon 7: 211 (1938)

4. Tricholoma cartilagineum sensu auct. mult.; fide Checklist of Basidiomycota of Great Britain and Ireland (2005)

5. Tricholoma loricatum (Fr.) Gillet, Hyménomycètes (Alençon): 108 (1874)

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: fungee (Public Domain)

Photo 2 - Author: johnplischke (CC BY-NC 4.0)