Strobilurus esculentus

Description

Strobilurus esculentus is a very common, edible mushroom of the genus Strobilurus. It is a small agaric with a brown, conical cap and whitish gills. The mushroom grows solitary or in small groups, attached to buried or partly buried spruce cones. This species never occurs on pine cones.

The cap is convex, brownish grey, and grows 1 to 3 cm in diameter. It can also be off-white or brownish-black. The gills are crowded, white, and somewhat sinuate. The spores are white. The stem is brownish grey with a pale apex.

This mushroom has a bitter taste. Fried caps of young mushrooms are consumed after preliminary boiling.

Common names: Spruce Cone Cap.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The cap is 0.8-2 cm in diameter, convex, later flat, smooth, with a tubercle in the center. The color is brown, fading to pale yellow; the edge of the cap is lighter than the center.

2. Gills

   The gills are frequent, adherent, white or gray.

3. Stem

   The stem is thin, elongated, 3-5 cm in height and 1-3 mm in thickness, lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. Woolly strands are visible at the base.

4. Flesh

   White; firm, with a slightly pungent odor.

5. Spores

   Elongated-ellipsoidal, cystids are elongated-fusiform.

6. Spore Print

   White.

7. Habitat and Distribution

   It grows from March to early May, and in October, sometimes after cooling in the summer months, in coniferous spruce forests, in wet sunny areas, on spruce cones, on rotten spruce shrubs immersed in the soil, among coniferous precipitation, in groups.

8. Similar Species

   Strobilurus tenacellus is distinguished by a more convex yellow-brown cap.

Synonyms

1. Collybia esculenta (Wulfen) P. Kumm., 1871

2. Marasmius esculentus (Wulfen) P. Karst., 1889

3. Marasmius conigenus subsp. esculentus (Wulfen) J. Favre, 1939

4. Marasmius tenacellus subsp. esculentus (Wulfen) Konrad & Maubl., 1948

5. Pseudohiatula esculenta (Wulfen) Singer, 1951

6. Pseudohiatula conigena var. esculenta (Wulfen) M.M. Moser, 1955

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Holger Krisp (CC BY 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Holleday (CC BY 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Peter Gabler (Public Domain)

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