Lepiota castanea
Description
Lepiota castanea is a deadly poisonous, uncommon, gilled mushroom of the genus Lepiota in the order Agaricales. It is known to contain amatoxins and consuming this fungus can be a potentially lethal proposition. It was described by French mycologist Lucien Quélet in 1881.
It has white gills and spores. They typically have rings on the stems, which in larger fungi are detachable and glide up and down the stem. The cap is broadly bell-shaped to flat, dark red-brown; soon splitting and scaly, up to 4 cm in diameter. The spores and flesh are white, with a mild taste. The stem is typically chestnut brown.
It can be found in coniferous and deciduous woodlands, mostly singly or in small groups.
Common names: Chestnut Dapperling.
Mushroom Identification
Cap
The cap is 15 - 40 mm in diameter, at first hemispherical, bell-shaped, then opens to a convex-prostrate, often with a wide tubercle. The surface is covered with concentrically arranged felt scales of dark red-brown, red-brown, orange-brown color, the tissue between the scales is predominantly white. In the center, the scales form a continuous coating, towards the edge they often disappear and are washed off.
The plates are free, at first white, then beige, with age - with an orange tint, fine fringed along the edge.
Stem
The stem 22 - 65 mm long, 1 - 6 mm in diameter, cylindrical, often curved at the base, hollow in the upper part by ¼ - ⅓ length, with an annular zone, above which it is light, pinkish-cream, without scales, below it is darker, red-brown, covered with scales of the same color with scales on the cap.
Flesh
The flesh in the cap and upper part of the stem is light, creamy, reddish in the lower part of the stem.
Spores
The spore print is white.
Spores from the side 7.0 - 14.0 (15.5) × 3.0 - 5.5 µm, more or less cylindrical, with a spur-like process, thick-walled. Under the influence of Melzer's reagent, they turn yellow and brown (dextrinoid); colored in a solution of Congo red; do not stain with cresyl blue.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Ryane Snow (snowman) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: jacilluch (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Dominicus Johannes Bergsma (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Björn S... (CC BY-SA 2.0)
