Crepidotus mollis
Description
Crepidotus mollis is a fan-shaped fungus. It has a cap cuticle (skin) that readily peels away from the flesh. The skin is rubbery and transparent and can be stretched to at least double its length before it tears. The cap is initially very pale, 1.5 to 5cm diameter and may turn ochre-brown with age. The pale brown gills fan out from the attachment point; they are soft and gelatinous. As the fruitbody ages, the spores mature and the gills turn rusty brown from the center.
The shell-shaped fruiting bodies of Crepidotus mollis are sometimes mistaken for a small oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus). It, however, seldom approaches the size of the oyster mushroom and is easily distinguished by a brown rather than white spore print. Other important field characters are the brown, fibrillose cap scales and a gelatinous cuticle, the latter best seen in moist weather.
Common names: Peeling Oysterling, Soft Slipper, Jelly Crep.
Mushroom Identification
Cap
Fruiting body 1.0-5.0 cm broad, bean to shell-shaped, laterally attached to the substrate and sessile; cuticle gelatinous when moist, surface pallid to cream, typically covered with fibrillose-brown scales, the latter sometimes weathering away in age; flesh thin, white, quickly bruising buff; veil absent; odor and taste mild.
Gills
Gills moderately broad, close, at first pale buff, then brown, emanating from the attachment point.
Stipe
Gills moderately broad, close, at first pale buff, then brown, emanating from the attachment point.
Spores
Spores 6-9 x 4.5-6.0 µm, elliptical, smooth; spore print brown.
Habitat
Solitary, scattered to gregarious on hardwood logs, sometimes on the bark of living trees, uncommon on conifer wood; frequently found on blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) and oaks (Quercus); fruiting from late fall to mid-winter.
Similar Species
Crepidotus variabilis is much smaller and paler, with buff gills.
History
The Peeling Oysterling acquired its basionym in 1762 when Jacob Christian Schaeffer described this woodland fungus and gave it the binomial name Agaricus mollis. It was German mycologist Friedrich Staude (died 1861) who, in 1857, transferred this species to its present genus, creating its currently accepted scientific name Crepidotus mollis.
Crepidotus mollis is the type species of the genus Crepidotus, which was established by Friedrick Staude in 1857.
Synonyms of Crepidotus mollis include Agaricus mollis Schaeff., Crepidopus mollis (Schaeff.) Gray, Crepidotus ralfsii (Berk. & Broome) Sacc., and Agaricus ralfsii Berk. & Broome.
The generic name Crepidotus comes from crepid- meaning a base or a shoe or a slipper (some sources say it means 'cracked'), and otus, meaning an ear - hence it suggests a 'slipper-like ear'. In the past mushrooms in this genus were sometimes referred to as slipper mushrooms.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Nina Filippova (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Alison Northup (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Adam Bryant (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 4 - Author: debk (CC BY-SA 4.0)
