Species flashcards

Description

Fruiting body: Usually growing in clusters, often in dense tufts. The cap is 4–12 cm across, convex at first, later funnel- or shell-shaped, with an inrolled margin for a long time. Whitish to pale cream when young, later yellowish to ochre-brown; surface smooth.

Fertile layer: The gills are white to cream, crowded, deeply decurrent down the stem and form a conspicuous network of cross-veins there.

Stem: 2–12 cm tall and 0.5–2 cm thick, whitish, cylindrical and usually lateral to slightly central. The fruitbodies in a cluster often arise from a shared stem base.

Flesh: White, soft and elastic when young, becoming tougher with age. The smell may be sweet, aniseed-like and floury; taste mild and floury.

Spores: Spore print white; spores elongate ellipsoid, smooth, 8–12 × 3.5–5.5 µm.

Occurrence: A saprotrophic species fruiting from April to July on trunks, stumps and larger branches of dead broadleaf trees, usually in clusters. It is uncommon in Hungary.

Edibility: Edible, although its characteristic sweet aniseed smell is not enjoyed by everyone.

Lookalikes: Similar to the oyster mushroom. The branching oyster mushroom has gills that run farther down the stem and are distinctly connected by cross-veins there.

Note: The epithet cornucopiae derives from the Latin for cornucopia, or horn of plenty, and refers to the funnel- or horn-like shape of the fruitbodies.

Species description: First described by Jean-Jacques Paulet and transferred to Pleurotus by Léon Louis Rolland in 1910.

Taxonomy

1. PhylumBasidiomycota
2. ClassAgaricomycetes
3. OrderAgaricales
4. FamilyPleurotaceae
5. GenusPleurotus

• Species: Pleurotus cornucopiae
• Synonym: Pleurotus sapidus
• Authority: Jean-Jacques Paulet and Léon Louis Rolland (1910)
• English name: Branching oyster mushroom
• Ecological status: saprotrophic
• Edibility: edible