Lentinellus montanus

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Lentinellus montanus
Lentinellus montanus 352754.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Russulales
Family: Auriscalpiaceae
Genus: Lentinellus
Species:
L. montanus
Binomial name
Lentinellus montanus
O.K.Mill. (1965)

Lentinellus montanus is a species of agaric fungus in the family Auriscalpiaceae. It is found at high elevations in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, where it fruits singly or in clumps on decaying conifer wood.

Contents

Taxonomy

The species was officially described by American mycologist Orson K. Miller in 1965. The type collection was made in McCall, Idaho on June 26, 1963. [1]

Description

The fruit bodies of Lentinellus montanus are sessile, meaning that they lack a stipe and grow directly on the substrate. The shell-shaped to fan-shaped cap measures 4–11 cm (1+584+38 in) in diameter. It is dark brown to red brown in color, except for the margins, which are light cinnamon to pale pinkish-buff. It is moist (but not sticky), somewhat hairy to shaggy in the center of the cap but smooth elsewhere. The gills are broad, somewhat distantly spaced, and interspersed with long lamellulae (gills that do not extend completely from the stipe to the cap margin). They have coarsely serrated edges, and a color ranging from white with purplish tints initially to buff in maturity. The tough flesh [2] is light brown and 1–4 mm thick, with a mild to slightly aromatic odor and a mild to somewhat acrid taste. [2]

Fruit bodies produce a cream to buff spore print. The spores are egg-shaped to roughly spherical, thick-walled, shell-shaped to fan-shaped, and measure 4.5–6.5 by 4–5  µm. Blunt spikes cover the spore surface. The basidia (spore-bearing cells) are club-shaped, four-spored, and measure 20–47 by 5.2–8 µm. [3]

Like all species in its genus, it is inedible due to its bitterness. [4]

Habitat and distribution

Lentinellus montanus is a white rot fungus. Its fruit bodies grow singly, or, more commonly, in clusters on decaying conifer wood at elevations between 5,000–10,000 feet (1,500–3,000 m). [3] Recorded tree substrates include Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), [5] Shasta red fir (Abies magnifica var. shastensis), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), [1] and Pinus contorta . [6] The fungus mycelium has also been found growing on fire wounds on living trees of Engelmann spruce and Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), where it attacks the springwood and causes small pockets of rot. [6]

A snowbank mushroom, L. montanus fruits near melting snow banks, typically in the spring and early summer (May to July). The species occurs in northern and central Rocky Mountains east to the Cascade Range and south to Utah. Other states in which it has been recorded include Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and California. [3]

Similar species

Lentinellus ursinus is similar. [2]

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Inocybe tahquamenonensis is an inedible species of agaric fungus in the family Inocybaceae. Found in the United States, it was formally described in 1954 by mycologist Daniel E. Stuntz. The fruit bodies have bell-shaped to convex to flattened caps measuring 1.2–3 cm (0.5–1.2 in) in diameter. Its color is dark purplish brown to reddish- or blackish-brown, with reddish-purple flesh. The gills are attached to the stipe and are somewhat distantly spaced. They are initially reddish brown before turning to chocolate brown, sometimes developing whitish edges. The spore print is brown; spores measure 6–8.5 by 5–6 µm. Fruit bodies grow singly, scattered, or in group under deciduous trees.

References

  1. 1 2 Miller OK. (1965). "Three new species of lignicolous agarics in the Tricholomataceae". Mycologia. 57 (5): 933–45. doi:10.2307/3756893. JSTOR   3756893.
  2. 1 2 3 Trudell, Steve; Ammirati, Joe (2009). Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press Field Guides. Portland, OR: Timber Press. p. 138. ISBN   978-0-88192-935-5.
  3. 1 2 3 Bessette A, Miller OK Jr, Bessette AR, Miller HR (1995). Mushrooms of North America in Color: A Field Guide Companion to Seldom-Illustrated Fungi. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. pp. 108–9. ISBN   0-8156-2666-5.
  4. Miller Jr., Orson K.; Miller, Hope H. (2006). North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi. Guilford, CN: FalconGuide. p. 145. ISBN   978-0-7627-3109-1.
  5. Hinds TE, Davidson RW, Lombard FF (1968). "Decay of Engelmann spruce by Lentinellus montanus in Colorado USA". Plant Disease Reporter. 52 (10): 820–1. ISSN   0032-0811.
  6. 1 2 Miller OK Jr; Stewart L. (1971). "The genus Lentinellus". Mycologia. 63 (2): 333–69. doi:10.2307/3757765. JSTOR   3757765.