Inocybe erubescens
Description
Inocybe erubescens is a very poisonous mushroom containing a lethal concentration of the toxin muscarine. This Summer season mushroom is notorious for staining bright red in all parts and it was once known as the Red Staining Inocybe.
It is found growing in small groups on leaf litters in association with beech. The fruit bodies (appear in spring and summer; the bell-shaped caps are generally pale pinkish with red stains, with a reddish-pink stipe and gills.
Synonyms: Inocybe patouillardii, Inocybe rubescens sensu auct.
Common names: Deadly Fibrecap, Red Staining Inocybe, Brick-Red Tear Mushroom.
Mushroom Identification
Cap
Ivory white or cream staining bright red or pinkish-orange with age. Initially conical or bell-shaped, then becoming flat with an umbo. With fine fibers that radiate from the center and often splitting at the edge of the cap.
Gills
Starting with a cream color and becoming pale cigar brown with age. Slowly staining red where bruised. Crowded and attached to stem.
Stem
White and slowly staining vivid red where touched or bruised. Stout and fibrous. The base is either not bulbous at all or only very slightly swollen.
Flesh
White not changing color when cut, but later slowly reddening. It can often be found already stained red were eaten by slugs.
Habitat
On calcareous soil under broad-leaved trees, particularly beech.
Spore Print
Dull brown.
Taste and Smell
The smell is strong and pungent but hard to describe. It is sometimes compared to honey, fruit or perfumed soap.
The flesh is said to taste sweet but we don’t recommend tasting this mushroom due to its toxicity.
History
In a 1905 publication, Norwegian botanist Axel Gudbrand Blytt (1843 - 1898) described this toxic toadstool, giving it the scientific binomial name Inocybe erubescens, by which name it is generally referred to today.
Synonyms of Inocybe erubescens include Inocybe patouillardii Bres., and it was by this name that the Deadly Fibrecap was generally referred to in field guides until quite recently (although the English common name most often used by the non-scientific community at that time was the Red-staining Fibrecap).
Inocybe, the genus name, means 'fibrous head', while the specific epithet erubescens means 'becoming red'.
Toxicity
This mushroom contains the toxin muscarine, in much higher doses than Amanita muscaria, and has been known to cause death. One fatality was recorded in Surrey in southern England in 1937. In Israel, it is confused with edible mushrooms of the genus Tricholoma, particularly Suillus granulatus, all of which grow in similar habitats.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Tatiana Bulyonkova from Novosibirsk, Russia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)
