Suillus salmonicolor
Description
Suillus salmonicolor is a fungus in the family Suillaceae of the order Boletales. It has orange/yellow (i.e. ‘salmon’) cap flesh and stem flesh by the base (more tan between). The stem has a viscid ring & red-brown dots/smears. It features a distinctive, glutinous, sheathing ring with a flaring, white, lower edge—along with orange flesh and dark red glandular dots that turn brown to black with age. The fungus is found in North America, Hawaii, Asia, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia and Central America. It has been introduced to several of those locations via transplanted trees.
By current definitions Suillus salmonicolor is the same as "Suillus subluteus" and "Suillus pinorigidus"—and its relationship to the southeastern species Suillus cothurnatus may well be best represented by an equals sign.
Suillus salmonicolor is a choice edible mushroom. It has a nice lemony flavor after the cap skin is removed.
Common names: Slippery Jill.
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Mycorrhizal with jack pine, Virginia pine, and pitch pine; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; late summer and fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains where the host trees occur.
Cap
3–8 cm; convex at first, becoming broadly convex; slimy; bald, but often appearing streaked under the gluten; dull coppery orange, with brownish to grayish streaks and discolorations, becoming brownish orange with maturity; the margin at first inrolled.
Pore Surface
At first covered with a thick, orangish to grayish partial veil that is baggy and rubbery, with a white roll of tissue on the lower edge; dull cinnamon orange at first, maturing to deeper brownish orange; not bruising; 1–2 angular pores per mm; not boletinoid; tubes to about 1 cm deep.
Stem
4–10 cm long; 1–2 cm thick; equal; covered with glandular dots that are dark brownish-red at first but become darker (usually brown to black) with age; whitish to yellowish or orangish; with a thick, sheathing, gelatinous, whitish to orangish ring that usually features a whitish roll of tissue at the bottom and, in age, collapses to form a grayish, bracelet-like band.
Flesh
Orangish in the cap; darker orange in the stem; deep salmon-orange in the stem base; not staining on exposure.
Odor and Taste
Not distinctive.
Chemical Reactions
Ammonia purplish on cap and flesh. KOH purple on cap and flesh. Iron salts negative on cap and flesh.
Spore Print
Cinnamon brown.
Microscopic Features
Spores 7–10 x 2–3.5 µm; fusiform; smooth; yellowish in KOH. Hymenial cystidia fusiform; dark brown in KOH. Caulocystidia fusiform to cylindric or subclavate; dark brown in KOH.
Look-Alikes
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Found in northeastern and northern North America, is similar in appearance to S. salmonicolor. It may be distinguished by a lighter-colored cap, cream to yellowish or pale ochraceous flesh, and a ring that is neither as thick nor as wide as S. salmonicolor. It is also larger, with a cap diameter of up to 16 cm (6.3 in), and its pore surface sometimes slowly stains reddish-brown when bruised.
Suillus subalutaceus
Both of these species have a less well-developed partial veil, and their flesh is a duller tone lacking yellow-orange tints.
History
The species was first described scientifically by American mycologist Charles Christopher Frost in 1874 as Boletus salmonicolor, based on specimens he collected in the New England area of the United States. In a 1983 publication, mycologist Roy Halling declared Boletus subluteus (described by Charles Horton Peck in 1887; Ixocomus subluteus is a later combination based on this name) and Suillus pinorigidus (described by Wally Snell and Esther A. Dick in 1956) to be synonymous. Halling also reexamined Frost's type specimen of B. salmonicolor, and considered the taxon better placed in Suillus because of its glutinous cap, dotted stem, and ring; he formally transferred it to that genus, resulting in the combination Suillus salmonicolor.
The specific epithet salmonicolor is a Latin color term meaning "pink with a dash of yellow".
In a 1986 publication on Suillus taxonomy and nomenclature, Mary E. Palm and Elwin L. Stewart further discussed the synonymy of S. salmonicolor, S. subluteus, and S. pinorigidus. They noted that fruit bodies of S. subluteus collected in Minnesota did not have the strong salmon colors considered characteristic of S. salmonicolor, as well as collections that had been named S. pinorigidus; this is a morphological difference that could be sufficient to consider S. subluteus a distinct species. They explained that although the microscopic characteristics of the three taxa do not differ significantly, this is not unusual for Suillus and cannot be used as the sole proof of conspecificity. Palm and Stewart concluded that a study of specimens from various areas of their geographical ranges would be needed to fully resolve the taxonomy of these related species.
There is some disagreement in the literature about whether Suillus cothurnatus represents a different species from S. salmonicolor. The online mycological taxonomy database MycoBank lists them as synonyms, contrary to Index Fungorum. In their 2000 monograph of North American boletes, Alan Bessette and colleagues list the two taxa separately, noting that the range of S. cothurnatus is difficult to determine because of confusion with S. salmonicolor. In a molecular analysis of Suillus phylogeny, based on the internal transcribed spacer, S. salmonicolor (as S. subluteus) and S. intermedius clustered together very closely, indicating a high degree of genetic similarity. These analyses were based on comparing the sequence differences in a single region of ribosomal DNA; more recent molecular analyses typically combine the analysis of several genes to increase the validity of inferences drawn.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Eric Smith (esmith) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Eric Smith (esmith) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Geoff Balme (geoff balme) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
