Melanogaster ambiguus

What You Should Know

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.

Other names: Stinking Slime Truffle.

Melanogaster ambiguus Mushroom Identification

1. 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.

2. Peridium

   Th shell of the fruiting body is 0.4-0.5 mm thick, dark brown or black-brown.

3. 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.

4. Spore Mass

   Black, thick, viscous.

5. 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.

6. 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.

Melanogaster ambiguus Synonyms

1. Octaviania ambigua Vittad., 1831

2. Argylium liquaminosum Wallr., 1833

3. Melanogaster klotzschii Corda, 1854

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: bkaounas (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)

Photo 2 - Author: ethancrenson (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)