Gymnopilus validipes

Gymnopilus validipes
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Hymenogastraceae
Genus:	Gymnopilus
Species:	G. validipes
Binomial name
Gymnopilus validipes (Peck) Hesler
Synonyms
Cortinarius validipes Gymnopolis magna

Gymnopilus validipes Mycological characteristics
	Gills on hymenium
	Cap is convex
	Hymenium is adnexed or adnate
	Stipe has a ring
	Spore print is yellow-orange
	Ecology is saprotrophic
	Edibility is psychoactive

Gymnopilus validipes is a mushroom in the family Hymenogastraceae. It is widely distributed in North America and Europe.

Description

• Pileus : 7.5 — 15 cm, convex to broadly convex, margin deeply incurved at first, becoming revolute with age, dry, fibrillose or with small ochraceous brown scales, pale-yellow or ochraceous buff, flesh soft, whitish, yellowish near the gills.
• Gills: Adnate to uncinate, close, thin, yellowish white becoming cinnamon.
• Spore print: Orangish brown.
• Stipe : 10 — 13 cm long, 2.5 – 5 cm. thick, equal or swelling in the middle, fleshy-fibrous, solid, elastic, fibrillose, concolorous, white within, the cortina leaves only a faint ring on the stalk. The specific epithet validipes means "having a robust stalk".
• Taste: Mild, standing in contrast to closely related bitter-tasting species.
• Odor: Pleasant.
• Microscopic features: Spores 8 — 10 X 5 — 6 μm, ellipsoid.

Gymnopilus validipes contains the hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin, the former at a concentration of around 0.12%. ^[1]

Habitat and formation

Gymnopilus validipes is found growing gregarious (in groups) to cespitose (in dense clumps) on tree stumps, hardwood logs and debris, widespread in the United States, common from the Great Lakes and eastward. ^[2]

See also

• Fungi portal

• Psilocybin mushrooms
• List of Psilocybin mushrooms
• List of Gymnopilus species

References

1. Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World
2. Go Micro Magic

• Stamets, Paul (1996). Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. ISBN   0-9610798-0-0.
• Hesler, L. R. (1969). North American species of Gymnopilus. New York: Hafner. 117 pp.

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