Leucocoprinus cepistipes
What You Should Know
Leucocoprinus cepistipes is a species of Fungi in the family Agaricaceae. It is typically found on wood debris, such as wood chips. It features white gills that are free from the stem, a softly granular-powdery cap that has a pale grayish-brown center, and a relatively bald stem with a ring. It is widely distributed in North America, and relatively common.
The species is edible, but not very palatable.
Other names: Onion-Stalked Lepiota.
Leucocoprinus cepistipes Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Saprobic; growing in clusters in woodchips, cultivated soil, gardens, and so on— also occasionally appearing in woods, especially in the vicinity of stumps and deadwood; spring through fall—and overwinter in warm climates; widely distributed in North America.
Cap
3–9 cm; egg-shaped or nearly round when young, becoming convex to broadly convex with a sharp or shallow central hump, or nearly flat; dry; powdery with soft, whitish granules; whitish to pale brownish; usually featuring a grayish-brown center, even when young (but not infrequently nearly pure white in the button stage); the margin becoming distinctly lined.
Gills
Free from the stem; close or nearly crowded; white, becoming pinkish to slightly brownish with old age.
Stem
6–9 cm long; 4–10 mm thick; more or less equal, but swollen slightly near the bottom; bald; white, discoloring and slowly bruising yellowish, then pinkish to brownish; often turning pinkish (the color of red onion skin) with age; with a bracelet-like, white ring that quickly collapses and often disappears; basal mycelium white; attached to whitish rhizomorphs.
Flesh
Whitish; very thin; unchanging when sliced.
Odor
Not distinctive.
Chemical Reactions
KOH negative on cap surface.
Spore Print
White.
Microscopic Features
Spores (5–) 7–11 (–13) x 4–7 µm; ellipsoid; smooth; with a tiny pore; thick-walled; hyaline in KOH; dextrinoid. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Pavement cells are present. Cheilocystidia 40–85 x 7.5–20 µm; clavate to lageniform; often becoming rostrate with a long, flexuous, irregular neck; thin-walled; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia not found. Pileipellis is a poorly defined cutis of elements 2.5–5 µm wide, with many exserted terminal cells 50–100 x 3–7.5 µm, cylindric to subfusiform or fusiform, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline to brownish or yellowish in KOH. Pileipellis over the glabrous disc is a subcellular layer from which arise widely cylindric elements with rounded apices, 35–60 x 5–7.5 µm, smooth, hyaline in KOH.
Leucocoprinus cepistipes Synonyms
Agaricus caepestipes Sowerby, 1795
Agaricus luteus With., 1796
Agaricus cepistipes Sowerby, 1797
Lepiota cepistipes (Sowerby) P. Kumm., 1871
Lepiota cepistipes var. lutea (With.) Quél., 1886
Hiatula cepistipes (Sowerby) R. Heim & Romagn., 1934
Sources:
Photo 1 - Author: chezaaro (Aaron S) (Public Domain)
Photo 2 - Author: Len Worthington (lennyworthington) (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
Photo 3 - Author: Rudolphous (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
Please help improve Ultimate Mushroom:
Submit