Rugosomyces carneus

Description

Rugosomyces carneus is a small pink-capped mushroom with white gills that can be found in grassy meadows, fields, or on lawns from spring to autumn in Europe and North America. It appears in spring, summer, and early autumn (usually after rain). It is very rarely found in woods unless a grassy clearing is present. It seems to tolerate agricultural practices because its fruiting bodies often appear on fertilized farmland.

Common names: Pink Domecap, Pink Fairhead.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   1.5-3.0 cm broad, convex, becoming plano-convex, the disc occasionally depressed in age; margin when young, incurved, then decurved to plane, frequently wavy; surface when fresh, pinkish to vinaceous-brown, a whitish bloom sometimes evident near the margin, the cap typically glabrous at maturity, often fading to a watery tan-brown; context thin, firm, translucent pinkish-tan, unchanging; odor not distinctive; taste somewhat pungent, disagreeable.

2. Gills

   Adnate, crowded, narrow, pallid, cream-colored at maturity, unchanging when bruised; lamellulae up to three-seried.

3. Stipe

   1.5 cm long, 0.4-0.8 cm thick, equal or tapering to a narrowed base, stuffed to hollow in age, often with a longitudinal fold; surface sparsely fibrillose, white over a pinkish-brown ground color, conspicuously hairy at the base; partial veil absent.

4. Spores

   Spores 4.5-6.0 x 2.0-2.5 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, inamyloid; spore print white.

5. Habitat

   In arcs and rings in watered grassy areas; fruiting in late summer.

6. Similar Species

   The Pink Domecap could be mistaken for a waxcap mushroom such as the Meadow Waxcap Porpolomopsis calyptriformis. The waxy texture of the gills of Hygrocybe species helps separate them from other colorful grassland mushrooms such as the Pink Domecap.

History

This lovely grassland mushroom was first described in the scientific literature in 1792 by the French mycologist Jean Baptiste Francois (Pierre) Bulliard, who gave it the binomial name Agaricus carneus.

This basionym was subsequently sanctioned by Elias Magnus Fries. Its currently-accepted scientific name Rugosomyces carneus dates from a 1991 publication by latter-day French mycologist Marcel Bon (1925 - 2014).

The specific epithet carneus comes from Latin and means 'colored like flesh'.

Synonyms of Rugosomyces carneus include Agaricus carneus Bull., Tricholoma carneum (Bull.) P. Kumm., Lyophyllum carneum (Bull.) Kühner & Romagn., and Calocybe carnea (Bull.) Donk.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Lukas from London, England (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Lukas from London, England (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Holger Krisp (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Jonathan M (CC BY-SA 3.0)