One-eyed Lepista (Lepista luscina)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Tricholomataceae (Tricholomaceae or Ordinary)
- Genus: Lepista (Lepista)
- Species: Lepista luscina (Lepista one-eyed)
- Other names for the mushroom:
- Row one-eyed
Synonyms:
Row one-eyed
- Austroclitocybe luscina
- Melanoleuca luscina
- Omphalia luscina
- Clitocybe luscina
- Lepista panaeolus var. irinoides
- Lepista panaeolus *
- Clitocybe nimbata *
- Paxillus lepista *
- Tricholoma panaeolus *
- Gyrophila panaeolus *
- Rhodopaxillus panaeolus *
- Rhodopaxillus lepista *
- Tricholoma calceolus *
Description of the mushroom
The hat is 4-15 cm in diameter (some even reach 25) cm, in youth it is hemispherical or cone-shaped, then flat-convex (pillow-shaped), and up to prostrate concave. The skin is smooth. The edges of the cap are even, bent in youth, then lowered. The color of the cap is gray-brownish, gray, there may be slight, conditional cream or lilac shades of a general gray or gray-brownish color. In the center, or in a circle, or in concentric circles, spots of a watery character can be located, for which she received the epithet "one-eyed". But there may be no spots, see footnote "*". To the edge of the cap, the cuticle is usually lighter, in some cases it may seem as if frostbitten or frosty.
The pulp is grayish, dense, fleshy, in old mushrooms it becomes loose, and in humid weather, also watery. The smell is mealy, not pronounced, may have spicy or fruity notes. The taste is also not very pronounced, mealy, may be sweetish.
The plates are frequent, rounded to the stem, notched, in young mushrooms almost free, deeply adherent, in mushrooms with open and concave caps, they look like adherent, and even, possibly, descending, due to the fact that the place of transition of the stem to the cap becomes not pronounced, smooth, conical. The color of the plates is grayish, brownish, usually to match the cuticle, or lighter.
Spore powder beige, pinkish. Spores are elongated (elliptical), finely warty, 5-7 x 3-4.5 μm, colorless.
The leg is 2.5-7 cm high, 0.7-2 cm in diameter (up to 2.5), cylindrical, can be widened from below, clavate, maybe, on the contrary, narrowed to the bottom, can be curved. The flesh of the leg is dense, in age fungi it becomes loose. The location is central. The stem is the color of the mushroom plates.
Habitat
Lepista one-eyed inhabits from August to November (in the middle lane), and from spring (in the southern regions), in meadows, pastures, on the banks of water bodies, on roadsides, railway embankments and other similar places. It can be found at the edges of all kinds of forests, in glades. Grows in rings, rows. Often there are mushrooms growing so densely that they seem to have grown together due to growth from a small area of soil, strongly germinated by mycelium.
Similar species:
- Lilac-footed row (Lepista saeva) It differs, in fact, with a lilac leg, and the absence of spots on the cap. Among lilac-footed specimens there are specimens with not pronounced lilac legs, which are completely indistinguishable from one-eyed non-spotted ones, and they can only be distinguished by the fact that they grew in a row with flowered ones. In taste, smell, and consumer qualities, these types are absolutely the same. In our country, as a rule, one-eyed lepists are considered precisely lilac-legged rows with not pronounced purple legs, since one-eyed, for unknown reasons, has been rather little studied in our country.
- Steppe oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) It is distinguished by strongly descending plates at any age, curved shape of the fruiting body, eccentricity of the leg, often by the contrast of the color of the plates relative to the cap.
- Crowded lyophyllum (Lyophyllum decastes) and carapace lyophyllum (Lyophyllum loricatum) - differ in the structure of the pulp, it is much thinner, fibrous, cartilaginous in carapace. They differ in significantly smaller sizes of the cap, the unevenness of the caps. They differ in the contrast of the color of the cuticle of the cap in comparison with the color of the leg and plates. They grow in a different way, not in rows and circles, but in heaps, which are located at a distance from each other.
- The grayish-lilac row (Lepista glaucocana) is distinguished by its place of growth, it grows in forests, rarely goes far to the edges, and one-eyed, on the contrary, practically does not occur in the forest. And, in fact, it differs in the color of the plates and legs.
- Smoky talker (Clitocybe nebularis) differs in its place of growth, it grows in forests, rarely goes far to the edges, and one-eyed, on the contrary, practically does not occur in the forest. The blades of the talker are either adherent (at a young age) or noticeably descending. There is a noticeable color contrast between the gray cuticle and the bright white plates, and in the one-eyed Lepista there are no such white plates.
- Lepista rickenii at first glance seems to be indistinguishable. The hat and leg have on average the same proportions, the same color scheme, maybe the same spotting, and the same frost-like bloom. However, there is still a difference. Lepista Ricken has plates from adherent to weakly descending, and it grows not only in meadows and pastures, but also on the edges of forests, in clearings, especially with the presence of pine, oak, and other trees do not interfere with it. Confusing the two is easy.
Edibility
Lepista one-eyed - Conditionally edible mushroom. Delicious. It is completely similar to the lilac-legged ryadovka.
*- today these synonyms are not generally accepted for the entire community of mycologists, and still stand out as a separate species "Lepista panaeolus", however, according to many authors, they all belong to the same species. About which there are corresponding records in databases such as “Species Fungorum”, as a synonym for lepista panaeolus = lepista luscina sensu auct. I agree with this part of the mycological community, since the differences between these species, both at the macro and micro levels, are insignificant and poorly formalized. For this reason, for this resource, I describe them in one article as synonyms, and those who are interested in the bowels of mycology can independently study the issue of combining these species into one, or dividing them into two species. Some authors, for example, divide them according to the spotting of the cap: with watery spots, referred to as one-eyed,and without them, to panaeolus. Their opponents argue that at the micro level they are indistinguishable, and, moreover, in the same row-circle, both such and other specimens are found. So, further reasoning on this topic, I leave at the sole discretion of site visitors.
Sergey Markov (SergeyM)