Tricholoma stiparophyllum

Description

Tricholoma stiparophyllum is a large fleshy agaric that is whitish throughout. It grows scattered or in small trooping groups on soil in broad-leaf and coniferous woods.

Synonyms: Tricholoma pseudoalbum, Tricholoma lascivum.

Common names: Chemical Knight.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The cap is white, sometimes ochre towards the center, convex, then flattened, then eventually depressed at the center, often with an obtuse umbo; its margin is furrowed (check with varying light incidence), sometimes slightly wavy. The cap surface is smooth, silky.

2. Stem

   The stem is white, smooth, full, stained with ochre especially towards the base, without a ring.

3. Flesh

   The flesh is white, unchanging; its taste is bitter then acrid after a while; the odor is strong, unpleasant, earthy, or of insecticide; its texture is fibrous.

4. Gills

   The gills are white to cream or ochre-pink, emarginate to adnate, crowded and regular. The spore print is white. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved or mixed woods, on rather calcareous or neutral soil, essentially with birch.

5. Season

   The fruiting period takes place from September to November.

6. Chemical Tests

   Flesh turns grey in 1mn upon exposure to sulfovanillin.

Look-Alikes

1. Tricholoma album

   Very similar in macroscopic characteristics and some authorities currently treat them as the same species.

2. Tricholoma lascivum

   Often confused with a lamellar row, and even more so with a white one. The species grows with a beech on soft humus (mule) soils, has a strong bitter and pungent aftertaste, and has a gray-yellow color that is not typical for the species in question.

3. Tricholoma inamoenum

   It has rare gills, fruiting bodies of a noticeably smaller and puny species, inhabits spruce and fir.

4. Tricholoma umbonatum

   Has a pronounced radial-fibrous structure of the cap, especially in the center, and olive or greenish tints in the fibrous part.

5. Tricholoma columbetta

   Has a pronounced radial-fibrous silky-shiny structure of the cap, by which it immediately differs. Its smell is weak or mealy, pleasant.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Gerhard Koller (Gerhard) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Gerhard Koller (Gerhard) (CC BY-SA 3.0)