Pluteus cervinus

Description

Pluteus cervinus has a dull brown color that blends well with the logs on which it grows. It has a brown, moist cap, white gills that turn pinkish, and no ring. It grows on rotten logs, roots, and tree stumps and is common in the midwestern and eastern parts of North America. It can be found almost any time of year, except when it's too cold or snowy. It can also grow on sawdust and other wood waste and has different varieties that look slightly different.

It's edible when young but not has an unappetizing taste and brittle texture. Some people have gotten sick after eating it. It spoils quickly in warm weather, so it should be refrigerated soon after picking. Insects like to eat this mushroom, so only fresh and young ones should be picked.

Common names: Fawn Mushroom, Deer Shield, German (Rehbrauner Dachpilz), Netherlands (Gewone hertenzwam).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The cap ranges from 1.77 to 3.94 inches (4.5 cm to 10 cm) and is initially convex, becoming broadly convex to nearly flat, with or without a broad central bump. When fresh, the cap is tacky but soon becomes dry, or slightly sticky when wet. It is shiny, bald, or finely scaly/fibrillose over the center and often radially streaked. The color ranges from dark to pale brown, often with a hint of olive or gray, occasionally almost whitish, with a brown to brownish center. The margin is usually not lined but may be faintly lined in older, diminutive specimens.

2. Gills

   The gills are free from the stem, close or crowded, and frequently have short gills. They are white at first, becoming pink and eventually deep flesh color.

3. Stem

   The stem ranges from 1.97 to 5.12 inches (5 to 13 cm) long and 0.20 to 0.59 inches (5 to 15 mm) thick, more or less equal, or with an enlarged base. It is dry, bald or finely fibrillose with brownish fibrils, whitish, and discolors brownish near the base. The basal mycelium is white.

4. Flesh

   The flesh is soft, white, and unchanging when sliced.

5. Odor and Taste

   The odor is not distinctive or somewhat radish-like, and the taste is usually at least slightly radish-like.

6. Spore Print

   Brownish pink.

7. Habitat

   The Deer Shield mushroom grows on deadwood from hardwoods and sometimes conifers, and can also appear on buried deadwood. It grows alone, scattered, or in groups and is usually found from spring to fall. It is common in eastern North America and has been seen in the San Francisco Bay area. It can be found on logs, sawdust piles, or wood chips.

8. Chemical Reactions

   KOH negative to very pale orange on cap surface.

9. Microscopic Features

   Spores 6-8 x 4.5-6 µ; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline to faintly ochraceous in KOH; uni- to multiguttulate; inamyloid. Cheilocystidia abundant (though often collapsing); forming a more or less continuous strip; to 50 x 15 µ; clavate to sphaeropedunculate; hyaline; thin-walled. Pleurocystidia 50-90 x 10-25 µ; fusiform to widely fusiform or narrowly utriform; thick-walled; hyaline; with 2-5 apical prongs or hooks; prongs usually entire rather than bifurcated, rarely branched. Intermediate cystidia variously shaped. Pileipellis a cutis or ixocutis; elements 3-11 µ wide, hyaline to brown in KOH, smooth; terminal cells clavate to subclavate or cylindric; clamp connections absent.

Look-Alikes

1. Pluteus magnus

   This mushroom is more compact, and stout with a nearly black, wrinkled cap.

2. Pluteus atromarginatus

   Has darkening-edged gills and it grows on conifers.

3. Pluteus petasatus

   Has a much paler, whitish-to-creamy cap with a darker, scaly umbo.

4. Pluteus umbrosus

   Has a wrinkled cap and is generally smaller.

History

The Deer Shield mushroom, originally named Agaricus cervinus by Jacob Christian Schaeffer in 1762, was later given its current scientific name by the renowned German mycologist Paul Kummer in 1871. Kummer chose to classify the Deer Shield under the Pluteus genus, which derives from the Latin word for a protective fence or shield.

The specific epithet cervinus, also of Latin origin, means "deer-like" and likely refers to the antler-like projections on the tips of the gill-edge cheilocystidia - sterile cells on the edges projecting from the edges of the gills - rather than the fawn color of the caps.

Synonyms and Varieties

• Agaricus cervinus Schaeffer (1774), Fungorum qui in Bavaria et Palatinatu circa Ratisbonam, 4, p. 6, tab. 10 Sanctionnement : Fries (1821)

• Agaricus pluteus Batsch (1783), Elenchus fungorum, p. 79

• Agaricus fuliginatus Batsch (1783), Elenchus fungorum, p. 81, tab. 6, fig. 26

• Agaricus atricapillus Batsch (1786), Elenchus fungorum, continuatio prima, p. 77, tab. 16, fig. 76

• Agaricus latus Bolton (1788), An history of fungusses growing about Halifax, 1, p. 2, tab. 2

• Agaricus phonospermus Bulliard (1792), Herbier de la France, 12, tab. 534, tab. 547, fig. 1 & tab. 590

• Agaricus pluteus var. ß rigens Persoon (1801), Synopsis methodica fungorum, p. 357

• Agaricus luridus Schumacher (1803), Enumeratio plantarum in partibus Saellandiae septentrionalis et orientalis, 2, p. 334

• Agaricus rimosus Schumacher (1803), Enumeratio plantarum in partibus Saellandiae septentrionalis et orientalis, 2, p. 312

• Hypophyllum umbrosum Paulet (1808) [1793], Traité des champignons, 2, p. 287, tab. 134, fig. 3

• Gymnopus pluteus (Batsch) Zawadzki (1835), Enumeratio plantarum Galiciae & Bucowinae, p. 164, n° 2585

• Agaricus cervinus subsp.* rigens(Persoon) Fries (1838) [1836-38], Epicrisis systematis mycologici, p. 140

• Agaricus neesii Klotzsch (1839), in Dietrich, Flora reigni Borussici, Flora des Königreichs Preussen, 7, tab. 459

• Agaricus cervinus var. b rigens(Persoon) Rabenhorst (1844), Deutschlands kryptogamen-flora, 1, p. 511

• Agaricus rigens (Persoon) Fries (1874), Hymenomycetes europaei sive epicriseos systematis mycologici, p. 186

• Pluteus cervinus var. rigens(Persoon) Gillet (1875), Les hyménomycètes, ou description de tous les champignons (fungi) qui croissent en France, p. 393

• Pluteus cervinus subsp.* rigens (Persoon) P. Karsten (1879), Meddelanden af societas pro fauna et flora fennica, 5, p. 22

• Pluteus atricapillus (Batsch) Fayod (1889), Annales des sciences naturelles, botanique, série 7, 9, p. 364

• Rhodosporus cervinus (Schaeffer) J. Schröter (1889), in Cohn, Kryptogamen-flora von Schlesien, 3(1), p. 617

• Pluteus rigens (Persoon) Laplanche (1894), Dictionnaire iconographique des champignons supérieurs (Hyménomycètes) qui croissent en Europe, Algérie et Tunisie, p. 270

• Hyporrhodius cervinus (Schaeffer) Hennings (1898), in Engler & Prantl, Die natürlichen pflanzenfamilien, 1(1**), p. 258

• Pluteus curtisii ss. Singer (1956) Transactions of the British mycological Society, 39(2), p. 160

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