Summary:
Lentinellus cochleatus is characterized by 1) a funnel-shaped cap that is usually cleft longitudinally toward the center of the cluster of caps, 2) decurrent gills with toothed or lacerate edges, 3) ridged or fluted fused stems packed into cespitose clusters, 4) an anise odor (when present), 5) a peppery taste, 6) growth on hardwood, 7) a white spore deposit, 8) nearly round, amyloid, slightly spiny spores, 9) a lack of cystidia, and 10) chlamydospores often occurring on the stems. Chlamydospores are likely to be found on club-like structures formed from capless stems that form collections or part of collections, but chlamydospores may be found on more normal stems and caps (Watling(2)). Chlamydospores were almost invariably found on the European collections examined but in many North American specimens, chlamydospores could not be demonstrated, (Petersen(25)). Miller(10) says it is "very seldom encountered in western North America".

Cap:
1-5.5cm, "irregularly shaped, strap-shaped to spathulate at first, then convex, but soon depressed", funnel-shaped, "lobed and twisted, thin and flexible although rather brittle", margin lacerate; hygrophanous, cinnamon to fawn, fading to clay pink or cinnamon buff; "smooth or with scattered fibrillose scales or slightly ridged", (Watling), 1-5cm broad, "spathulate at first then sharply convex", soon depressed at disc to funnel-shaped, very brittle; hygrophanous, generally "cinnamon", "pinkish cinnamon" to "light pinkish cinnamon" or "pinkish buff", some ridges and ends of fibrils "avellaneous"; "somewhat lacerate, sometimes reticulate lacerate with scattered upraised fibrils which are erect to recurved", when old often conspicuously veined or ribbed, (Miller), 0.8-5(10)cm across, (cespitose and multipileate), cornucopioid to tubaeform, usually cleft longitudinally, convex to the repand margin, margin everted, inrolled; hygrophanous, pinkish brown, avellaneous brown to dark brown to dark russet-brown, sometimes with small bruise spots of darker brown; smooth, pruinose, "or with fine spiked or disorganized tomentum inward, smooth outward, occasionally with raised ridges or talon-like scales", margin entire, not striate, (Petersen), 2-5cm, "irregularly funnel-shaped, margin incurved becoming lobed and wavy; flesh-color to reddish brown; smooth, moist, brittle, with scattered hairs", (Phillips)

Flesh:
tough; "fawn to cinnamon when water-soaked, fading on drying"; "concolorous in cap and stem", (Watling), watery, tough; dingy, water-soaked brown, colored as cap and stem, (Miller), watery tan when fresh, white when dry, (Petersen), tough; pinkish, (Phillips)

Gills:
"replaced by long decurrent, close, thick, rather brittle ridges" with serrate-notched margin; pale cinnamon to clay buff, (Watling), "long decurrent, close, thick, brittle"; pale salmon to pale cinnamon, "pale cinnamon-pink", "pale pinkish cinnamon", with dingy brown stains when old; serrate [saw-toothed], (Miller), deeply decurrent, close, 0.1-0.3cm broad, thin; pallid tan, pinkish tan, to off-white, "easily staining in small, brown spots in age"; "margin hardly serrate, more often lacerate", (Petersen), decurrent, close, broad; whitish to pale flesh-colored; often torn, with toothed edges, (Phillips)

Stem:
0.75-5cm x 0.25-1cm, usually fused in groups, central to slightly eccentric [off-center]; colored as cap or darker downward; "ridged to fluted or sulcate velvety towards base", (Watling), 0.7-5cm x 0.3-3cm, fused in a cluster, central to slightly eccentric; "pale pinkish cinnamon", "vinaceous-cinnamon", darkening to streaked "light cinnamon-drab", "cinnamon-drab", "cinnamon" or "sayal brown" when old; dry, ridged but not from extension of gills, sulcate [grooved], velvety, (Miller), 0.7-5(15)cm, "lateral to ligulate but more or less vertical", hollow in upper part, usually twisted; pinkish tan to dark brown, often streaked with "light cinnamon drab", "cinnamon drab", "cinnamon", "sayal brown", "snuff brown" [Ridgway(1) colors], especially when handled; smooth to furrowed in upper part but hardly from gill remnants, sometimes velutinous [velvety] below substrate level, (Petersen), 2-6cm x 0.5-1.5cm, "central or lateral, often rooting, fused at the base in dense clusters"; reddish-brown darkening toward base; deeply furrowed, (Phillips)

Odor:
usually anise (Watling), of anise or not distinctive (Miller), strong of anise to negligible (Petersen), anise (Phillips)

Taste:
peppery (Watling), strongly peppery (Miller), mildly to strongly peppery to peppery-sour, unpleasant in throat, (Petersen), distinctive (Phillips)

Microscopic spores:
spores (4)4.5-5.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, round to nearly round, minutely punctate-echinulate, amyloid; basidia 4-spored, 20-25 x 4-6.5 microns, clavate, colorless, thin-walled; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia absent; cap cuticle of interwoven, repent, colorless, thin-walled hyphae 3.5-6 microns wide, irregularly arranged, often with swollen cells with colloidal contents which become thick-walled with age; clamp connections present, (Watling), spores (3.5)4.0-5.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, round to nearly round, minutely echinulate [finely spiny], strongly amyloid; basidia 4-spored, (14)20-28(34) x 4.2-6.5 microns, clavate, colorless, thin-walled; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not seen; cap cuticle of largely decumbent to interwoven hyphae 3.0-6.5 microns wide, thick-walled and thin-walled, yellowish in KOH or Melzer''s reagent; chlamydospores on stem, (Miller), spores (3.5)3.8-4.8(5.1) x 3.0-4.5 microns, nearly round to elliptic, weakly to moderately amyloid, ornamentation hardly visible at 1500x, not more strongly amyloid than wall, occasional large spores 6.0-6.5 x 4.5-5.0 microns; basidia 4-spored, 18-28 x 4.2-6.5 microns, broadly clavate when immature, cigar-shaped when mature, colorless, with basal clamp connection; gloeocystidia rare, 6.5-8.5 microns in diameter, clavate, yellow-refringent, arising from lateral stratum; upper stem cuticle developing loose coralloid branches, 4.5-7.5 microns in diameter, "some sterile and bluntly rounded, others somewhat tapered apically and appearing narrowly fusiform", others terminating in chlamydospores 7.0-14.5 microns in diameter, round to nearly round, golden but not dextrinoid, smooth, thick-walled (wall up to 1 micron thick), apedicellate to pedicellate, (Petersen), spores 4.5-5 x 3.5-4 microns, nearly round, spiny, amyloid, (Phillips)

Spore deposit:
white (Watling, Miller)

Notes:
Lentinellus cochleatus has been found at least in WA, KY, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH, NY, OH, and VT, (Miller). Collections were examined from WA, OR, ID, ON, QC, KY, MA, ME, MI, MN, NH, NY, PA, VT, WI, Mexico, Austria, France, Netherlands, Russia, and Sweden, (Petersen), It has been reported from BC and MT (Mochizuki). There are collections from BC at the Pacific Forestry Centre and the University of British Columbia. It also occurs in the United Kingdom (Watling).

EDIBILITY

no (Phillips)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Lentinellus cornucopioides (Bolton) Murrill
Lentinellus umbilicatus (Peck) Singer
Lentinus cochleatus (Pers.: Fr.) Fr.
Lentinus umbilicatus Peck