Agaricus langei

Description

Agaricus langei is a species of fungus in the genus Agaricus. It is a saprobic mushroom living in the ground and feeding on dead and decaying leaf litter. It can be found in small groups and individually. The cap surface color is a very pale brown, although the flesh is white underneath that, and is covered in red-brown scales that often look like hair. When the fruit is young, it is dome-shaped, becoming very flattened as it ages. The size of the cap can be between 5cm and up to 15cm. It bruises a red color, later turning brown, when damaged.

Must be cooked (10 minutes of boiling) and can be used exactly as a cultivated mushroom. It has a rich meaty flavor.

Common names: Scaly Wood Mushroom, Grosser Waldegerling, Hegyi Csiperke, Waldegerling.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   6 - 12 cm, thick-fleshed, initially ovoid or hemispherical, with a tucked edge, later convex-spreading, with a small tubercle in the middle, with a thin, spreading, sometimes wavy edge. The surface of the cap is grayish-brown, light purple-brown, darker in the center, dark brown, covered with wide, pressed, fibrous, brownish scales, sometimes with remnants of the cover at the edges.

2. Gills

   The gills are thick, thin, free, first pinkish with a reddish tinge, later brownish, with a brownish tinge, with a light, sterile edge.

3. Stem

   5 - 12 cm high, 1.5 - 2.5 cm in diameter, cylindrical, smooth, sometimes bent at the bottom, often narrowed to the base, partially hollow in the center, with a ring, above the ring naked, whitish, below the ring whitish, near the base light brown, often with a pinkish tinge, covered with flaky plaque. The ring is simple, wide, thin, covered with whitish at the top, the brownish flaky plaque at the bottom, located at the top of the stem.

4. Flesh

   The flesh is white, slightly reddish in the cut, especially on the stem and above the gills, with a faint sour smell.

5. Spores

   7-10 * 4-5.5 μm, oblong-ovate or elliptical, with a smooth surface, with 2 fluorescent drops, brown.

6. Spore Print

   Dark brown.

7. Habitat

   Grows from July to November, in coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests, with spruce, pine, oak, and beech, alone and in groups, very rarely.

Synonyms

1. Psalliota langei F.H.Møller (1950)

2. Psalliota fuscofibrillosa F.H.Møller (1950)

3. Psalliota mediofusca F.H.Møller (1950)

4. Agaricus fuscofibrillosus (F.H.Møller) Pilát (1951)

5. Agaricus mediofuscus (F.H.Møller) Pilát (1951)

6. Agaricus langei var. mediofuscus (F.H.Møller) Wasser (1978)

7. Agaricus langei var. sylvaticoides Bon (1981)

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: luisballester (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: andydonegan (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: luisballester (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: nschwab (CC BY-NC 4.0)