Flattened crepidotus (Crepidotus applanatus)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Inocybaceae (Fiber)
- Genus: Crepidotus (Crepidotus)
- Species: Crepidotus applanatus (Flattened crepidotus)
Synonyms :
Agaricus applanatus
- Agaricus planus
- Agaricus malachius
Description
Hat : 1-4 cm, semicircular, shell-shaped or petal-shaped, sometimes, depending on growth conditions, rounded. The shape is convex in youth, then prostrate. The edge may be slightly striped, tucked inward. Soft, somewhat flabby to the touch. The skin is hygrophane, smooth or finely velvety, especially at the point of attachment to the substrate. Color: white, turns brownish to pale brown with age.
The grimace of the cap, photo in wet weather:
And in a dried state:
Plates : with an even edge, adherent or descending, rather frequent. Color from whitish to light brown or brownish brown at maturity.
Leg : absent. Rarely, when conditions cause the mushrooms to grow straight up instead of a "shelf", there may be an almost round base of some kind, giving the illusion of a rudimentary "stem" where the mushrooms attach to the tree.
Flesh : soft, thin.
Smell : not pronounced.
Taste : pleasant.
Spore powder: Brown, ocher-brownish.
Spores : Non-amyloid, yellowish-brownish, spherical, 4.5-6.5 microns in diameter, from finely warty to smooth, with pronounced perispore.
Ecology
Typically saprophyte on dead stumps and deciduous logs in deciduous and mixed forests. Less often - on the remains of conifers. Prefers maple, beech, deciduous hornbeam and spruce and fir - from conifers.
Season and distribution
Summer and autumn. The mushroom is widespread in Europe, Asia, North and South America.
Similar species
Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) may look similar at a cursory glance, but the flattened crepidotus is much smaller. In addition to size, mushrooms are clearly and unequivocally distinguished by the color of the spore powder.
It differs from other crepidots by its smooth and fine-velvety, felt at the base, whitish surface of the cap and by microscopic features.
Edibility
Unknown.
Photo: Sergey