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Species Information
Summary: Panellus stipticus has gills that often glow greenish white in the dark. Daytime features include 1) small size, 2) a spatula-shaped, kidney-shaped or fan-shaped cap that is dry to viscid, minutely hairy or scurfy, and buff to cinnamon brown, 3) thin flesh that is tough and whitish to pale yellowish, 4) brownish gills, 5) an off-center to lateral stem, 6) a peppery or astringent or bitter taste, 7) growth in clusters on dead hardwood, 8) a white spore deposit, and 9) oblong, amyloid spores. "when fresh, this mushroom will give off a greenish glow if viewed in total darkness for several minutes", (Bessette).
Kauffman reports it from OR. Arora(1) says that it occurs in CA. There are collections at the University of Washington from BC, WA, ON, AK, GA, IN, NY, MS, and VA. Collections were examined from ID, DC, LA, MD, MI, NY, (Burdsall). Martin, K.J.(3) report it from CT, ME, NH, and NY. Breitenbach(3) give the distribution as North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.
Cap: 0.5-3cm broad, spatula-shaped, kidney-shaped, or fan-shaped, convex to flat or depressed near stem; buff to ocher-buff, tan, brownish, or cinnamon brown, sometimes concentrically zoned; dry, minutely hairy or scurfy, (Arora), 1.5-4cm, fan-shaped to kidney-shaped, flat and sometimes depressed toward insertion of stem, margin inrolled at first, later wavy; brownish yellow, pale clay-colored with ocher tones, with faint concentric zones; viscid, dull, finely furfuraceous-squamose, radially grooved toward margin which is somewhat crenate (scalloped), (Breitenbach), (0.5)1.2-3.2 x 1.2-1.5(2.5)cm, kidney-shaped, convex to flat-convex; ochraceous buff, when dried various shades of tan or brown; dry, areolate, woolly-pubescent, sometimes with several concentric ridges or zones, (Burdsall)
Flesh: thin, tough; white or pale yellowish, (Arora), thin, soft, elastic; cream to pale ocher, (Breitenbach)
Gills: adnate to decurrent, close, narrow, often forked; brownish to pale cinnamon or ocher-buff, often luminescent [glowing greenish white in the dark], (Arora), set off sharply from stem, 40-70 reaching stem, 3-7 subgills between each pair of gills, broad, with basal anastomoses, some also forked; light brownish; surface viscid, (Breitenbach), pinkish-buff (Phillips), connected by veins, (Lincoff(1)), close, narrow, often forked, luminescent in North American material, (Burdsall)
Stem: 0.5-2cm x 0.3-0.8cm, "off-center to lateral, usually narrowed at base, often somewhat flattened; same color as cap or paler (to nearly whitish)", (Arora), 0.5-2cm x 0.3-1cm, narrowing downward, solid, elastic, usually concrescent (growing joined) with others; light beige to ocher-brownish; finely furfuraceous-squamose, (Breitenbach), 0.6-1.2cm x 0.3-0.8cm, eccentric to lateral, constricted somewhat at base; dull white; minutely fibrillose, (Burdsall)
Veil: absent (Arora)
Odor: fruity-aromatic (Breitenbach), not distinctive (Burdsall)
Taste: usually peppery or astringent (Arora), bitterish-tart (Moser), astringent and harsh after being chewed for a fairly long time, (Breitenbach), very bitter (Courtecuisse), very bitter (Miller), slightly peppery to somewhat astringent (Burdsall)
Microscopic spores: spores 3-5 x 1.5-3 microns, elliptic, oblong or sausage-shaped, smooth, amyloid, (Arora), spores 4-5.5 x 2.3-3.2 microns, elliptic, smooth, iodine-positive, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 19-25 x 3.5-5 microns, narrowly clavate, with basal clamp connection, basidioles fusiform; cheilocystidia 40-90 x 5-8 microns, narrowly clavate to fusiform, regular to knobby, "some with an amorphous substance at the apex"; clamp connections mentioned for cap cuticle and basidia, (Breitenbach), spores (3)3.5-4.5 x 1.2-2.2 microns; pleurocystidia "scattered or in dense clusters, mostly imbedded in hymenium, occasionally protruding up to 1/2 total length", 17-40 x 3.4-5 microns, "fusiform, clavate, or clavate-rostrate, sometimes bifurcate at apex", colorless, thin-walled, cheilocystidia abundant, crowded, protruding 1/2 total length or more, 17-45 x 3.5-6 microns, "narrowly clavate, cylindric, clavate rostrate, fusiform to bifurcate at apex", colorless, thin-walled, (Burdsall)
Spore deposit: white (Arora), whitish (Breitenbach)
Habitat / Range
usually gregarious or in overlapping tiers on dead hardwoods, (Arora), clustered and imbricate, more rarely single, on dead wood of hardwoods, primarily on stumps of Quercus (oak) and Fagus (beech), occasionally also on conifers, throughout the year, (Breitenbach for Switzerland), usually in tightly imbricate clusters on sides of hardwood slash, noted on numerous hardwoods and hardwood products; September to November, (Burdsall), May to December (Lincoff(2)), spring, summer, fall, winter
Similar Species
Panellus mitis has a peelable cap skin. The gill edge is peelable as a gelatinous thread. The cap is hygrophanous but not viscid-resinous. It grows on dead wood of conifers. Spores are cylindric-allantoid. (Breitenbach). Panellus longinquus has larger spores among other differences. Neolentinus adhaerens is similar in viscid-resinous consistency, but grows on conifer wood [as well as hardwood] and usually has a more or less central stem, (Breitenbach).
