Gomphidius subroseus
Description
Gomphidius subroseus is a gilled mushroom found in Europe and North America. It is characterized by a rose-red to the pink, viscid cap, white, decurrent gills, thin slimy veil, and a yellowish stem base. The well-spaced, white, waxy gills of young specimens are sometimes confused with species of Hygrophorus. The latter, however, can be distinguished by white to pale-colored, not blackish spores.
It is considered edible but of low quality. As with other species of the genus, removing the glutinous cuticle improves the taste.
This species is widespread across western North America, roughly following the coastal and Sierra Nevada distribution of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) in California, USA, north through Oregon and Washington into southern British Columbia, Canada. It also occurs in the Rocky Mountains in southern British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, south through Idaho and Montana, and is scattered through the mountains in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona with Rocky Mountain Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca). Distribution records in the Rocky Mountains are sparse in comparison to Pacific State collections.
Common names: Rosy Gomphidius.
Mushroom Identification
Cap
3–6 cm wide; convex, becoming planoconvex or slightly depressed; bald or finely appressed-fibrillose; slimy; rosy red to pinkish brown, sometimes somewhat mottled with brownish to olive shades.
Gills
Running down the stem; close or almost distant; pale at first, becoming smoky gray; short-gills frequent.
Stem
3–9 cm long; 5–10 mm wide; more or less equal, or tapering to base; with a fibrillose veil that is typically poorly developed and hard to distinguish underneath the slime veil; at maturity slimy over the lower portion; sometimes adorned with a ring or ring zone that becomes blackened by spores; white above, bright yellow below; discoloring and bruising black.
Flesh
White in the cap; yellow in the stem.
Spore Print
Purplish gray to black.
Microscopic Features
Spores 15–20 x 5–8 µm; smooth; narrowly ellipsoid or nearly fusiform; dirty yellowish to brownish in KOH. Hymenial cystidia 40–110 x 5–17.5 µm; cylindric to narrowly fusoid; smooth or a little wrinkled or encrusted; hyaline to grayish or brownish-walled; thin-walled. Pileipellis an ixocutis of gelatinized, smooth elements 1–3 µm wide, hyaline in KOH.
Synonyms
Gomphidius subroseus homobasis Singer, 1948
Gomphidius subroseus subroseus Kauffman, 1925
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Ruth Hartnup (Attribution 2.0 Generic)
Photo 2 - Author: Bryant Olsen (Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic)
Photo 3 - Author: Jason Hollinger (Attribution 2.0 Generic)