Pluteus section Pluteus - click to expand
No sac volva. Growing on wood. This section smells and tastes like
radish and has pleurocystidia on the gill faces that are fat and spindle
shaped and look like they are wearing a jester cap.
Species
mentioned: Pluteus cervinus, exilis, elaphinus, primus, orestes, parilis n.p.,
pouzarianus, atromarginatus, laricinus, salicinus, petasatus, magnus,
leucoborealis, brunneidiscus, washingtonensis, heterocystis, pellitus,
nothopellitus, hongoi
Pluteus cervinus group - unclamped
Our most common species
group, but only confidently identified microscopically by the absence of clamp
connections.
Pluteus cervinus EU -
the so-called "deer" mushroom, because the cap reminded somebody of a deer pelt.
Black fibrils are usually on the stem. No clamp connections under
the microscope. Usually a medium brownish-grey, but the cap can be darker or
lighter like other species found below with clamps, so you need to check for
clamps to be certain you have one of these two species.
Pluteus exilis CA - very,
very difficult to distinguish without DNA sequencing, but perhaps fewer
fibrils on the stem. A recent DNA paper
declared that only P. exilis had been found so far in the PNW, but both
species were in California, but they had a very small sample size (four
collections). So I started sequencing all the deer mushrooms I could find in OR
and WA and all 6 turned out to be P. cervinus and none were P. exilis,
so my report suggested the opposite, also with a small sample size. So that teaches us
the dangers of studies with small sample sizes. Note that pure white
versions of Pluteus exilis have been found in WA twice, but I have no
confirmed Pluteus cervinus collections lacking pigment.
Pluteus elaphinus MA - one WA
collection was the first known west coast collection of this lookalike that
might be told apart by a darker cap and more ornamentation on the cap
and stem than the other clampless species.
Pluteus cervinus © Danny Miller, P. exilis (normal
and albino) © Kieran Yeung and Yi-Min Wang, P. elaphinus
© Danny Miller
Pluteus pouzarianus group - clamped
These four species have clamps, and are collected less frequently
than the unclamped species. Although some have tried to distinguish the
species by cap colour, as you'll see from the photos, that doesn't appear to be
reliable and they may have to be distinguished microscopically.
Pluteus pouzarianus EU -
on conifers with a greyish-brown cap with a cuticle that is two-layered,
leaving a faint whitish bloom (although it is one of the species we have
found in albino form). It is only weakly radish smelling. We
have one single WA collection so far. An AZ collection has ambiguous locations
uniting our WA sequence, a CA sequence, and the many EU sequences which appeared
to be a few bp different at first.
Pluteus primus EU - P. primus is
a conifer species most often with a very dark cap but a microscope
is required for proper confirmation (as you can see by the last photo, although
it does lack the black stem fibrils usually found on P. cervinus/exilis). Several WA
sequences match official EU and CA sequences quoted in the paper. One old collection had marginate gills. Some
agarics seem to be capable of developing marginate gills in age and this may be
one of them, as this has never been recorded for this species before.
Pluteus orestes CA - this
clamped species has a medium to pale brown cap and is found in the
cascades on conifers. Best distinguished microscopically. OR and WA
sequences match CA type area sequences.
Pluteus parilis n.p. CA -
this clamped species is not described yet, but probably will be from CA.
I have WA and OR sequences that match the CA sequences that it will be described
from. It is supposedly a medium to pale brown capped conifer species from the coast and
the cascades, but best distinguished microscopically. One BC sequence with a
very dark cap is 4 bp
and 1 indel different in ITS, but for now I'm assuming it represents P.
parilis.
Pluteus pouzarianus © Terri Clements and Donna Fulton (from AZ), Dean Lyons
(from CA), and Yi-Min Wang (from WA)
Pluteus primus © Sharon Squazzo and Yi-Min Wang (2 images)
Pluteus orestes © Ron Pastorino and Sava Krstic
Pluteus parilis n.p. (pale version) © Julie Jones, P.
aff parilis (dark version) © Christopher Ng
Pluteus petasatus EU -
very similar to the above, but without black fibrils on the stem.
Whitish cap is overlain with black fibrils. On urban area hardwoods.
No clamps. CA and WA sequences match the EU exactly. Justo concluded that the
type of Pluteus magnus was the same as this, although they could not
obtain DNA to prove it.
probable Pluteus petasatus © Andrew Parker, P.
petasatus © Bruce Newhouse
Pluteus leucoborealis Siberia -
another large species that was not known from the PNW (but was
reported in California) until I
found it in my yard and sequenced it and it matched the type. Since then we
found a better WA collection. It
has a large pale or whitish cap with some brown, radial fibrils
(although my specimen was probably old and had a uniform tan cap), and a pale stem (much like
P. petasatus) but is more often found in wild areas instead of
urban areas.
Pluteus leucoborealis © Danny Miller and Sharon Squazzo
Pluteus laricinus MI (P. atromarginatus
EU
misapplied?) - black marginate gill edges set this species apart from
our others. We have long called this by the EU name P. atromarginatus,
but those sequence are at least 4 bp and one long chunk of 5 indels different.
One BC sequence and 2 OR sequences are basically a perfect match to the type
sequence of the more recent Michigan species P. laricinus. The next
closest match (3 bp different from the type sequence) is the MI species P.
atropungens. Justo considered them all potential synonyms but the clades do
separate clearly, so I'm not so sure. If they are all the same, the oldest name
is P. atromarginatus, but for now it's safest to call them P.
laricinus. Note that as seen with P. primus above, this is not the
only species capable of having marginate gills due to weathering.
unsequenced Pluteus laricinus © Michael Beug
Pluteus 'salicinus PNW11' - medium brown cap with a white stem
that turns blue when handled from psilocybin. Our one BC sequence is 4%
different than the dozens of EU sequences we have of this, so it is likely an
undescribed sister species. Section Hispidoderma below has a dark capped bluing
species that does not smell of radish nor have the "jester cap" cystidia.
We need photographed, sequenced collections.
unsequenced Pluteus 'salicinus PNW11' © Erin Page Blanchard
Pluteus brunneidiscus CT (= P. washingtonensis
WA, =P. heterocystis WA) - a
sometimes smaller (cap ~5cm across) deer mushroom, often with a dark cap and again without black fibrils on the stem.
This photo shows an interesting white ground colour showing through that is
atypical. It has also been found in albino form (pure white). It grows with
hardwoods and has clamp connections. Justo examined the Washington type
collections of P. washingtonensis and P. heterocystis and found them great
microscopic matches to P. brunneidiscus, and probably not separate species,
although DNA could not be obtained to prove it. I have shown that sequences
from BC, WA, OR and ID all match east coast sequences of P. brunneidiscus, so
our collections matching this description throughout the PNW always match the
DNA of P. brunneidiscus, so I think that closes the case.
Pluteus brunneidiscus © Jonathan Frank (typical dark fibrils on cap) and Dean
Lyons (albino)
There has been speculation that Pluteus pellitus, Pluteus
nothopellitus or Pluteus hongoi could conceivably be present in the
PNW, but no reports nor even rumours yet. But if you think you find one, let me
know.