Saw-leaf (Heliocybe sulcata) photo and description

Sawfoot (Heliocybe sulcata)

Systematics:
  • Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
  • Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
  • Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
  • Subclass: Incertae sedis (undefined)
  • Order: Polyporales
  • Family: Polyporaceae (Polyporous)
  • Genus: Heliocybe (Heliocybe)
  • Species: Heliocybe sulcata (furrowed saw-leaf)

Synonyms:

  • Lentinus reddish

  • Lentinus sulcatus
  • Pocillaria sulcata
  • Pocillaria misercula
  • Pleurotus sulcatus
  • Neolentinus sulcatus
  • Lentinus miserculus
  • Lentinus pholiotoides
  • Panus fulvidus

Sawfoot furrowed - Heliocybe sulcata

Description

Hat : 1-4 centimeters in diameter, usually about two centimeters. There is information that under favorable conditions it can grow up to 4.5 cm in diameter. In youth it is convex, hemispherical, then flat-convex, flat, depressed in the center with age. The color is orange, reddish, ocher, orange-brown, darker in the center. With age, the edge of the cap can fade to a yellowish, yellowish-whitish color, the middle remains darker and more contrasting. The surface of the cap is dry, slightly rough to the touch, covered with brown, dark brown scales, densely located in the center, less often to the edges; pronounced radially furrowed, the edge of the cap is ribbed.

Plates : adherent, frequent, white, with plates. Young mushrooms have smooth edges, with age the edge becomes uneven, jagged, "sawtooth".

Sawfoot furrowed - Heliocybe sulcata

Leg : 1-3 centimeters in height and up to 0.5-0.6 cm in thickness, according to some sources it can grow up to 6 centimeters and even, which seems incredible, up to 15. However, there is nothing “incredible” here: a mushroom can grow from a crack in wood, and then the leg is strongly stretched to bring the cap to the surface. Cylindrical, may be slightly thickened towards the base, rigid, dense, hollow with age. Whitish, off-white, lighter under the cap. To the base it is covered with small brown scales.

Flesh: firm, tough. White, whitish, sometimes creamy, does not change color when damaged.

Smell and taste: not pronounced.

Spore powder : white.

Spores : 11-16 x 5-7 microns, smooth, non-amyloid, with cystids, bean-shaped.

Edibility

Unknown.

Ecology

The fungus grows on wood, both living and dead. Prefers hardwood, especially aspen. There are also finds on conifers. It is noteworthy that furrowed sawfoot can grow both on dead dead wood and on processed wood. It can be found on posts, fences, hedges. Causes brown rot.

Season and distribution

For different regions, different dates are indicated, sometimes the mushroom is marked as spring, May - mid-June, sometimes as summer, from June to September.

Distributed in Europe, Asia, North America, Africa. On the territory of Russia, finds of the Irkutsk region, in Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk and Trans-Baikal territories were noted. In Kazakhstan in the Akmola region.

The furrowed sawfoot is very rare. In many regions, this species is included in the Red Book.

Similar species

Outwardly, Heliocybe sulcata is so unusual that it is difficult to confuse it with any other species.

Other information

The flesh of the furrowed leaf is not subject to decay. The mushroom does not deteriorate, it can only dry out. Not a mushroom, but a mushroom picker's dream! But, alas, you can't experiment much with eating, the mushroom is too rare.

But the unkillable pulp is not the most remarkable thing about this mushroom. Much more interesting is its ability to recover. Dried fruiting bodies can recover and continue to grow when humidity rises. Such is the kind of adaptation to arid regions.

The name Heliocybe sulcata fully corresponds to its appearance: Helios - Helios, the sun god in Greece, sulcata from the Latin sulco - furrow, wrinkle. Look at his hat, that's right, the sun with grooves-rays.

Photo: Ilya.