Turbinellus kauffmanii
Description
Turbinellus kauffmanii is a species of mushroom native to North America. It is similar to the better-known Turbinellus floccosus. Like the latter, it is fleshy and vase-shaped, its scaly cap develops a deep central depression, and its undersurface is composed of gill-like folds and wrinkles. But its colors are different; the upper surface is creamy to tan, and the scales are brown. Additionally, its scales are firm, up-turned, and diminish in size from the center toward the edge; in Turbinellus floccosus the scales are soft, appressed, and roughly the same size. Microscopically the two species are nearly indistinguishable—although, at high magnification, the spores of Turbinellus kauffmanii are more finely ornamented than those of Turbinellus floccosus.
It is ectomycorrhizal with conifers, especially fir (Abies spp.) and hemlock (Tsuga spp.), from low elevation to montane forests in western North America, and with hemlock and pine (Pinus spp.) in eastern North America. Western subpopulations appear to have a preference for but are not restricted to, mature forests.
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Mycorrhizal with conifers; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall, or overwinter along the West Coast; originally described from "near Mt. Baker, Washington"; distributed in western North America and the Appalachian Mountains; reported from Mexico.
Fruiting Body
Vase shaped and fleshy; developing a central depression that deepens with age; 7–25 cm high and 5–20 cm across (sometimes reported up to 35 cm across and 40 cm high).
Upper Surface
Dry; scaly with uplifted, brown to brownish, firm scales that are large in the center but diminish in size toward the margin; dull tan to buff or orangish buff; margin wavy.
Undersurface
Running deeply down the stem; covered with longitudinal wrinkles and folds; folds often forked and/or cross-veined—and, in maturity, sometimes becoming elaborately channeled and pocketed; bald; creamy when fresh; maturing to brownish; sometimes discoloring and bruising purplish brown.
Stem
5–12 cm high; 2–4 cm wide; flaring into the cap, from which it is not distinctly separate; bald; whitish; discoloring brownish; basal mycelium white; often rooting into the substrate with a basal projection.
Flesh
White to whitish; very firm; unchanging when sliced.
Odor and Taste
Odor fragrant, or not distinctive; taste not distinctive.
Spore Print
Reported as cinnamon. I have not verified the color.
Microscopic Features
Spores 11–17 x 6.5–8 µm; ellipsoid, with a snout-like apicular end; very finely verrucose; hyaline to ochraceous in KOH; Basidia 45–60 x 7.5–10 µm; subclavate; 2- and 4-sterigmate. Cystidia not found. inamyloid. Clamp connections not found.
History
It was described in 1947 as Cantharellus kauffmanii by Alexander H. Smith, who treated the members of Gomphus as two sections—Gomphus and Excavatus—within Cantharellus in his 1947 review of chanterelles in western North America, as he felt there were no consistent characteristics that distinguished the genera. T. kauffmanii was placed in the latter section due to its scaly cap, lack of clamp connections, and rusty spores. E. J. H. Corner placed it in the genus Gomphus in 1966. The genus Gomphus, along with several others in the Gomphaceae, was reorganized in the 2010s after molecular analysis confirmed that the older morphology-based classification did not accurately represent phylogenetic relationships. Thus, Turbinellus floccosus was made the type species of the genus Turbinellus.
Synonyms
Cantharellus kauffmanii A.H.Sm. (1947)
Gomphus kauffmanii (A.H.Sm.) Corner (1966)
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Sava Krstic (sava) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: kalibardo (kalibardo@yahoo.com) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Steve (Lokness) (CC BY-SA 3.0)