Pholiota lubrica

Description

Pholiota lubrica is a rare fungus. It is one of the most attractive of the so-called 'scalycap' mushrooms; it usually has a striking red-brown cap with a contrasting yellowish margin.

It is found in parts of northern and central mainland Europe. Very similar scalycap mushrooms have been recorded in parts of North America, but it is unclear whether they are co-specific with P. lubrica as found in northern Europe.

Common names: Scalycap Mushroom.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   3 to 8.5cm in diameter, conico-convex or hemispherical at first then convex, eventually expanding to almost flat, sometimes with a low broad umbo; reddish brown with a paler yellowish margin and with a glutinous surface. Small white scales from veil fragments cling to young caps, especially at the margin

2. Pileipellis

   An ixocutis of 2 - 5μm wide, cylindrical encrusted hyphae embedded in a hyaline gelatinous layer. Clamps (left) are present in the cap cuticle hyphal structure.

3. Gills

   The moderately crowded adnate to subdecurrent gills are white or tinged pale yellow when young, turning orange-brown as the spores develop but remaining paler at the gill edges.

4. Cystidia

   Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia are abundant, clavate or lageniform to fusiform, 30-70 x 6-20μm.

5. Stems

   Cylindrical, 0.5 to 1.2cm in diameter and 4 to 9cm tall; dry; initially whitish turning yellowish and becoming rust-brown towards the base; surface girdled with floccose brown scales (fragments of the partial veil) below a fugacious median-to-superior ring zone.

6. Spores

   Ellipsoidal or slightly phaseoliform in side view; ovoid in front view, thin-walled, smooth, 6-7 x 3.5-4.5μm with a small indistinct germ pore.

7. Spore Print

   Reddish-brown.

8. Odor and Taste

   Odor is faint, and pleasant but not distinctive; tastes bitter.

9. Habitat & Ecological Role

   Singly or in tufts on buried rotten wood, rotting stumps, dead trunks, and woody debris on deciduous broadleaf and coniferous woodland; also on leaf litter or woodchip on roadside verges, in churchyards and parkland.

10. Season

    Late summer and autumn.

Look-Alikes

1. Pholiota squarrosa

   Is usually paler with much larger cap scales.

2. Pholiota alnicola

   Is paler; it has few scales and much larger spores; it grows on Alder trunks and stumps.

3. Pholiota aurivella

   Has pale stems and much larger spores with very distinct germ pores.

History

Described in 1801 by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon who named it Agaricus lubricus, this scalycap mushroom was moved to the genus Pholiota in 1951 by German-American mycologist Rolf Singer, thus establishing its currently-accepted scientific name as Pholiota lubrica.

The generic name Pholiota means scaly, and the specific epithet lubrica is a Latin adjective meaning 'slippery' or 'slimy' - a reference to the glutinous cap surface of this scalycap mushroom.

Synonyms

1. Agaricus lubrica Pers.

2. Flammula lubrica (Pers.) P. Kumm.

3. Inocybe lubrica (Pers.) Roze

4. Dryophila lubrica (Pers) Quel.

5. Flammulinopsis lubrica (Pers.) Fayod

6. Gymnopilus lubricus (Pers.) S. Imai

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: James K. Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 2 - Author: James K. Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 3 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 4 - Author: James K. Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 5 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)