Heliocybe sulcata

[ Basidiomycota > Gloeophyllales > Gloeophyllaceae > Heliocybe . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Although Heliocybe sulcata is fairly widely distributed, it is not often collected, and appears to be more common from the Rocky Mountains southward, into Mexico, than it is in other areas on our continent. It is a very small, gilled mushroom with a distinctively pleated cap (the cap is "sulcate," in Mycologese, resulting in the species name sulcata). Heliocybe sulcata is found on the decaying wood of hardwoods, where it is associated with a brown rot of the wood.

Lentinus sulcatus, Neolentinus sulcatus, and Pleurotus sulcatus are synonyms.

Thanks to Trey Richards for collecting, documenting, and preserving Heliocybe sulcata for study; his collection is deposited in The Herbarium of Michael Kuo.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on the well-decayed wood of hardwoods (especially quaking aspen); causing a brown rot; growing alone or in small groups; summer and fall; fairly widely distributed in North America, but rarely reported. The illustrated and described collection is from Minnesota.

Cap: 1–3 cm across; convex, becoming broadly convex; dry; ridged and grooved from the margin nearly to the center, with brownish to brown ridges and paler grooves; finely scaly with brown scales; the center more prominently scaly and darker; the margin fringed with tiny triangular points.

Gills: Narrowly attached to the stem or beginning to pull away from it; nearly distant; short-gills frequent; whitish; edges serrated.

Stem: 10–30 mm long; 2–4 cm wide; more or less equal; dry; slightly shaggy (especially toward the base) or nearly bald; whitish to brownish; tough.

Flesh: White; tough; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 13–15 x 5–6 µm; subcylindric; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored. Hymenial cystidia fusiform; not projecting. Pileipellis a cutis of hyaline elements 2.5–2.5–7.5 µm wide; thick- or thin-walled. Hyphal system dimitic. Clamp connections present.

REFERENCES: (Berkeley, 1845) Redhead & Ginns, 1985. (Pegler, 1983; Grand, 2004; Evenson, 2015; Cripps, Evenson & Kuo, 2016.) Herb. Kuo 07061901.

This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.

Spores

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2019, September). Heliocybe sulcata. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/heliocybe_sulcata.html