Laccaria laccata

Description

Laccaria laccata is a common edible mushroom found in North America, Europe, and parts of Mexico and Costa Rica. It has an orangish brown cap and stem, thick flesh-colored gills, and white mycelium on the stem's base. It can be difficult to identify without a microscope due to its size variability and mycorrhizal association with both hardwoods and conifers.

L. laccata grows in wooded areas and heathlands with poor soil, and prefers cool weather. It forms a mutually beneficial relationship with several types of trees, including Pines, Beech, and Birch, and is considered a pioneer species.

The mushroom is mild-tasting, but its tough stalks are not eaten. It is abundant, rarely infested by maggots, and often used in soups, stews, or fried with stronger-flavored mushrooms due to its lack of flavor.

Laccaria laccata has been found to have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, which may make it useful in various applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

Common names: Deceiver, Waxy Laccaria, Lackluster Laccaria, German (Blassblättriger Lacktrichterling), Netherlands (Gewone fopzwam).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The cap ranges from 0.39 to 1.77 inches (1 to 4.5 cm) in diameter, but it can be larger or smaller. It is initially convex, becoming flat and sometimes uplifted, often with a central depression. The margin can be smooth and even or lined to grooved. The cap can be bald or finely hairy, orangish-brown in color, fading to buff, and often changes in color as it dries out.

2. Gills

   The gills are attached to the stem or begin to run down it. They can be distant or close and are pinkish in color, sometimes developing a faint purplish cast.

3. Stem

   The stem is 0.79 to 3.94 inches (2 to 10 cm) long and up to 0.39 inches (1 cm) thick. It can be equal or tapering towards the base and can be smooth to finely hairy. Occasionally, it may have longitudinal grooves. The stem is colored like a cap and has white basal mycelium. As it matures, the stem becomes hollow.

4. Flesh

   The flesh is thin and colored like the cap.

5. Odor and Taste

   Taste mild to slightly radishlike; odor similar.

6. Spore Print

   White.

7. Habitat

   Laccaria laccata is a mycorrhizal species that forms a mutually beneficial relationship with hardwoods or conifers. It can grow alone or in groups, sometimes forming loose clusters. This mushroom is common and can be found during the spring, summer, and fall. It has a wide distribution across North America and Europe.

8. Chemical Reactions

   KOH negative on cap surface.

9. Microscopic Features

   Spores 7-10 µ; subglobose to globose; ornamented with spines 1-2 µ long and about 1 µ wide at their bases; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored. Cheilocystidia usually present; filamentous to subclavate; up to about 55 x 7.5 µ. Pileipellis a cutis of elements mostly 3-7.5 µ wide, with scattered bundles of upright elements; terminal cells subclavate to subcapitate.

Look-Alikes

1. Laccaria proxima

   It is larger with more fibrillose stem.

2. Laccaria fraterna

   Occurs primarily under introduced trees, e.g. Eucalyptus and Acacia.

3. Laccaria bicolor

   Has a distinct stem, featuring a lilac base and a tawny upper section.

4. Laccaria tortilis

   It is a small, deceitful mushroom with a twisted cap.

5. Laccaria ochropurpurea

   Also much larger and has purple gills.

History

The woodland mushroom Laccaria laccata was initially described by the Tyrolean naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1772 as Agaricus laccatus. Later, in 1884, it was given its current binomial name by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke. The specific epithet 'laccata' is derived from the Latin adjective meaning 'varnished' or 'shining'. In the past, it was also known as Clitocybe laccata. The most common variety found in North America is var. pallidifolia, which was described by Charles Horton Peck.

Laccaria laccata is the type species of the widely distributed mushroom genus Laccaria. Its relationship with other gilled mushrooms is not entirely clear, but it is currently classified in the family Hydnangiaceae.

The variable appearance of Laccaria laccata gives rise to its common name, which includes 'lacklustre laccaria'. The Zapotec people also refer to it as Beshia ladhi biinii, a name shared with other members of the Laccaria genus.

Synonyms and Varieties

• Agaricus carneolaccatus Hoffmann (1789), Nomenclator fungorum, 1, p. 190

• Agaricus carneus Schaeffer (1774), Fungorum qui in Bavaria et Palatinatu circa Ratisbonam, 4, p. 71, tab. 304

• Agaricus farinaceus var. 2 subfarinaceusPurton (1821), An appendix to Midland flora, 3(1), p. 214

• Agaricus farinaceus Withering (1776), A botanical arrangement of all the vegetables ... in Great Britain, 2, p. 760

• Agaricus janthinus Sobolewski (1799), Flora Petropolitana, p. 298

• Agaricus laccatus Scopoli (1772), Flora carniolica, Edn 2, 2, p. 444 (Basionyme) Sanctionnement : Fries (1821)

• Agaricus laccatus var. a subcarneus(Batsch) Duby (1830), Botanicon gallicum seu synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica, Edn 2, 2, p. 837

• Agaricus lividopurpureus Withering (1792), A botanical arrangement of British plants, Edn 2, 3, p. 366

• Agaricus subcarneus Batsch (1786), Elenchus fungorum, continuatio prima, p. 123, tab. 19, fig. 100

• Amanita carnea Lamarck (1783), Encyclopédie méthodique, Botanique, 1, p. 108

• Camarophyllus laccatus (Scopoli) P. Karsten (1879), Bidrag till kännedom af Finlands natur och folk, 32, p. 231

• Clitocybe laccata (Scopoli) P. Kummer (1871), Der fürher in die pilzkunde, p. 122

• Clitocybe ohioensis Mont.

• Collybia laccata (Scopoli) Quélet (1888), Flore mycologique de la France et des pays limitrophes, p. 237

• Laccaria farinacea (Gray) Singer, 1973

• Laccaria tetraspora Singer, 1947

• Omphalia amethysteus (Bull.) Gray, 1821

• Omphalia farinacea Gray, 1821

• Omphalia laccata (Scopoli) Quélet (1886), Enchiridion fungorum in Europa media et praesertim in Gallia vigentium, p. 26

• Russuliopsis laccata (Scopoli) J. Schröter (1889), in Cohn, Kryptogamen-flora von Schlesien, 3(1), p. 622

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Michel Langeveld (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Michel Langeveld (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Zonda Grattus (CC BY 3.0)

Photo 5 - Author: Nina Filippova (CC BY-SA 4.0)