Melanogaster ambiguus
Description
Melanogaster ambiguus is an inedible false truffle mushroom. It is globose, tuberiform carpophores, up to 5 cm in diameter, surrounded by some rhizomorphs, immersed in humus. Non-separable peridium, brown-ocher, with a velvety, opaque, darkening to the touch. Gleba is initially whitish, with polygonal ± flattened cells, soon filled with a shiny black gelatinous substance. Scleroderma or garlicky smell.
Common names: Stinking Slime Truffle.
Mushroom Identification
Fruiting Bodies
2-5 cm in diameter, bulbous, irregularly rounded or almost rounded in shape, slightly wrinkled, olive-brown, brown, yellow-brown, dark brown, with numerous, brown, root-like heavy mycelium, with a pleasant fruity smell and a mild taste.
Peridium
Th shell of the fruiting body is 0.4-0.5 mm thick, dark brown or black-brown.
Spore-bearing
Chambered, with irregularly rounded chambers with a diameter of 1-4 mm, initially light yellow, yellowish, later reddish-brown, black with a bluish tint, with white veins.
Spore Mass
Black, thick, viscous.
Spores
13-16 * 7-8 μm, lemon-shaped or inverted-ovoid in shape, pointed at the top, with a smooth surface, yellowish, black-brown, black.
Habitat
It grows from June to September, in deciduous forests, mainly with oaks and hornbeams, on sandy soils, and under fallen leaves, rarely. A rare species.
Synonyms
Octaviania ambigua Vittad., 1831
Argylium liquaminosum Wallr., 1833
Melanogaster klotzschii Corda, 1854
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: bkaounas (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: ethancrenson (CC BY-NC 4.0)