Gymnopilus validipes

🏷️ Description

Gymnopilus validipes, commonly known as the "Mighty Golden Foot," is a striking mushroom from the family Hymenogastraceae, found across North America and Europe. This fascinating fungus is known for its robust appearance, unique features, and mild hallucinogenic properties. Let's dive into its details! 🌟

🌈 Special Features

• Bruising: Blue or green bruising, especially at the base and sometimes on the cap.

• Hallucinogens: Contains psilocybin (0.12%) and psilocin.

🔎 Identification

🍄 Cap:

• Size: 2.76 to 5.91 inches (7 to 15 cm). Sometimes up to 11.81 inches (30 cm).

• Shape: Convex to broadly convex, flattening with age.

• Texture & Color: Dry, fibrillose or covered with small ochraceous-brown scales. Pale-yellow to ochraceous buff. Flesh is soft, whitish, or yellowish near the gills.

• Special Feature: Green or blue bruising may appear, with green spots likely on older caps.

🍃 Gills:

• Attachment: Adnate to uncinate or decurrent with a tooth.

• Spacing: Close and thin.

• Color: Yellowish white, aging to cinnamon.

📏 Stem:

• Size: 3.94 ro 5.12 inches (10 to 13 cm) long, 0.98 to 1.97 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) thick.

• Shape: Equal or slightly swollen in the middle, fleshy-fibrous, and elastic.

• Color: Yellowish-white, fibrillose surface, white inside.

• Ring: Cortina leaves only a faint ring.

• Fun Fact: The name "validipes" means "having a robust stalk."

🟤 Spore Print: Orangish brown.

👃 Odor & Taste:

• Odor: Pleasant.

• Taste: Mild—unlike the bitter taste of closely related species.

🔬 Microscopic Features:

• Spores: 7.5–10 × 4.5–6 μm, ellipsoid, slightly inequilateral in profile, verrucose, and ferruginous in KOH.

• Other Features: Dextrinoid reaction, distinctive lack of pileocystidia and caulocystidia.

🌳 Habitat and Distribution

• Where: Found gregariously (in groups) to cespitose (in dense clumps).

• Substrate: Tree stumps, hardwood logs, and forest debris.

• Range: Widespread in the Eastern United States, especially common near the Great Lakes and eastward.

• Season: June through November.

Photo source: Michael K. Oliver (CC BY 4.0)