Megacollybia rodmanii
Description
Megacollybia rodmanii is a medium to large mushroom that has a brown to olive-brown cap with streaks, white notched gills, and a slightly enlarged base. It has a mild taste, no noticeable odor or color change, and is enjoyed by insect larvae. It belongs to the Marasmiaceae family and is one of four species in this family found in North America. It is a saprotroph, meaning it feeds on dead hardwood, usually from spring to autumn.
Megacollybia rodmanii is also found in mainland Europe and parts of Russia. The name "platterful" does not indicate the edibility of the mushroom but refers to the broad gills, as the Latin word "platyphylla" means "broad gills." Although some reports suggest platterful mushrooms are edible, they have also caused illness in some individuals.
Common names: Broad Gill, Platterful Mushroom, German (Breitblättriger Holzrübling).
Mushroom Identification
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Cap
The cap ranges in size from 1.18 to 7.87 inches (3 to 20 cm) and changes shape as it matures. When young, it is convex, but it becomes broadly convex, flat, or shallowly depressed with age. The cap is dry and can be brown, olive brown, or pale grayish brown in the form known as rodmani, or gray-brown to gray in the form called murina. It often has radial streaks.
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Gills
The gills are attached to the stem and can be either broad or narrow. They are either closely spaced or almost distant from each other, and they have a whitish color.
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Stem
In the rodmani form, In the rodmani form, the stem is 1.97 to 4.72 inches (5 to 12 cm) in length and up to 0.39 inches (1 cm) in width. In the murina form, it ranges from 1.97 to 3.54 inches (5 to 9 cm) long and up to 0.98 inches (2.5 cm) wide. The stem is finely silky and whitish. It is mostly uniform in width but may slightly taper towards the top. In the murina form, the base of the stem is attached to abundant and noticeable rhizomorphs, while in the rodmani form, the rhizomorphs are inconspicuous or absent.
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Flesh
The flesh of this mushroom is whitish and does not change color when sliced.
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Odor and Taste
It has a mild taste and does not have a distinctive odor.
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Spore Print
The spore print is white.
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Habitat
This mushroom is saprobic, meaning it obtains nutrients from decaying organic matter. It grows either alone or in groups on decomposing hardwood logs or from buried deadwood. It can be found from May to July and is fairly common across a wide distribution, primarily east of the Rocky Mountains and extending south through Mexico to Central America.
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Microscopic Features
The spores are smooth, ellipsoid-shaped, and measure 6-10 x 5-7.5 µ. They do not contain amyloid substances. The cheilocystidia, which are abundant, are primarily clavate-shaped. In the rodmani form, they do not project and reach about 60 µ in length, while in the murina form, they usually project and can be up to 80 µ long. The pileipellis, which is the outer covering of the cap, consists of elements that are 4-9 µ wide and have brownish contents. The terminal elements of the pileipellis are frequently upright, with tips that are clavate, subclavate, or cylindrical, measuring 23-74 x 6-16 µ. Clamp connections are present in this mushroom.
Look-Alikes
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Resembling the platterful, this species prefers soil as its habitat rather than wood. It can be identified by its spores adorned with warts.
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Another similar species to the platterful, but smaller in size and lacking rhizomorphs. Notably, they do not grow on wood.
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These mushrooms closely resemble the platterful in terms of appearance and size. They typically thrive on dead hardwood. However, they do not possess rhizomorphs, their spore print tends to be brownish-pink, and their gills appear pinkish, except in very young specimens.
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Clitocybula lacerata
This mushroom bears a striking resemblance to the platterful but is smaller in size. It possesses amyloid spores and never develops rhizomorphs.
History
In 1796, Christiaan Hendrik Persoon scientifically described a saprobic fungus and named it Agaricus platyphyllus.
In 1972, Czech mycologists František Kotlaba and Zdeněk Pouzar reclassified the fungus as Megacollybia platyphylla, which is its current scientific name.
The genus name Megacollybia indicates that these fungi are larger than the coin-shaped fungi found in the genus Collybia.
The specific epithet platyphylla describes the wide gills of the fungus.
Synonyms
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Megacollybia platyphylla (Pers.) Kotl. & Pouzar
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Agaricus grammocephalus Bull.
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Agaricus platyphyllus Pers.
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Agaricus repens Fr.
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Agaricus tenuiceps Cooke & Massee
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Collybia grammocephala (Bull.) Quél.
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Collybia platyphylla (Pers.) P. Kumm.
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Oudemansiella platyphylla (Pers.) M.M. Moser
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Tricholoma tenuiceps (Cooke & Massee) Massee
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Tricholomopsis platyphylla (Pers.) Singer
Video
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