Summary:
Section Pluteus. Pluteus cervinus group is characterized by 1) a medium to large, brown, bald cap, 2) free, close to crowded gills without dark edges, 3) a dingy whitish stem, typically with fine gray-brown longitudinal or spiral fibrillar striation, 4) the absence of a veil, 5) growth on wood, and 6) a pinkish brown spore deposit. |What has been called Pluteus cervinus in the Pacific Northwest is common, but most are Pluteus exilis, based on the molecular study of Justo(4). "Generally speaking P. exilis has a darker pileus and a more markedly squamose stipe than P. cervinus, but there is a significant level of overlap in these characters."[Latin names italicized]. The Justo(4) molecular study designates a Pluteus cervinus clade of six species (P. cervinus, P. exilis, P. rangifer, P. hongoi, P. elaphinus, and P. alniphilus), with only Pluteus exilis definitely established for the Pacific Northwest. Pluteus exilis is described as a separate species in this program for clarity but its concept is included in the Pluteus cervinus group. |The Pluteus cervinus clade of Justo(4) is described there morphologically as "Species mostly growing on angiosperm wood or on the humus layer without apparent connection to wood; more rarely on conifer wood. Clamp-connections absent on pileipellis hyphae except in P. alniphilus". For other members of the Pluteus cervinus clade see the SIMILAR section. Another microscopic character found in at least some members of the clade is fusoid-ventricose pleurocystidia with 2-4 apical hooks. |Justo(4) regard the North American distribution of Pluteus cervinus as widespread in eastern North America, from NC to MA and westwards into WI, and also recorded from western North America (San Francisco Bay area) but rare. A DNA sequence from the North American Mycological Association meeting in Salem Oregon in 2018 matched Pluteus cervinus, (D. Miller, pers. comm.). |Justo(4) and Breitenbach(4) give P. atricapillus (Batsch) Fayod as a synonym of Pluteus cervinus (Schaeff.) Kummer and Hansen, L.(2) vice versa, but Banerjee describes then separately and it is the Banerjee description of P. cervinus (Fr.) Kummer that is used below. |The Arora and Banerjee descriptions below were for Pluteus cervinus.

Cap:
3-12(15)cm across, obtuse or convex becoming broadly convex to broadly umbonate or flat; dark brown to pale brown to grayish brown or dingy fawn, margin sometimes paler; "smooth or radially streaked with fibrils, slightly viscid when moist and often somewhat wrinkled when young", (Arora), (3)5-15(20)cm across, obtuse when young, soon broadly bell-shaped, finally flat or nearly so, sometimes retaining low broad umbo; color variable: "isabella color", pale buffy brown, "dresden brown" to "pale smoky gray", disc often darker; "soft to the touch and semiviscid to viscid (rarely very viscid)", often uneven or wrinkled at first but becoming even when old, bald to radially streaked with appressed fibrils, minutely squamulose to fibrillose scaly over disc at times, margin even to occasionally striate, cap cuticle separable to disc, (Banerjee)

Flesh:
soft; white, (Arora), moderately thick ( 0.8-1.2cm), relatively soft; pallid to white, unchanging, (Banerjee)

Gills:
free at maturity, close or crowded, broad, soft; "white becoming pinkish, finally dingy reddish or flesh-colored", (Arora), approximate to stem, close, broad (1-1.6cm), 1-2(3) tiers of subgills; pallid to white before becoming pink to light pinkish cinnamon, edges pallid; edges even, (Banerjee), edges are white-fringed under a hand-lens (Trudell)

Stem:
5-13cm x 0.5-2(2.5)cm, equal or wider at base; "white or with grayish to brownish longitudinal fibrils"; dry, (Arora), 5-14(19)cm x (0.3)0.6-1.2(2.4)cm at top, equal to slightly tapering, firm, solid; pallid, dingy whitish, evenly colored except for base that sometimes shows traces of fibrils of similar color to disc; becoming bald, "typically with fine pinkish gray brown spiral striations along the length (occasionally with blackish fibrils forming a reticulum)", base sometimes cottony-mycelioid, (Banerjee)

Veil:
absent (Arora)

Odor:
usually radish-like, (Arora), mild (Banerjee), not distinctive (Phillips), strong of radish or potato (Trudell)

Taste:
earth-like to radish-like (occasionally disagreeable), (Banerjee), not distinctive (Phillips)

Microscopic spores:
spores 5-8 x 4-6 microns, elliptic, smooth, (Arora), spores 5.4-8(10) x (4)4.4-5.4(6.4) microns, narrowly oval to broadly elliptic to nearly round, smooth, nearly colorless, wall slightly thickened, hilar appendage conspicuous; basidia 4-spored, (17)22-25(38) x 6-7(9.6) microns, contents granular when fresh; pleurocystidia numerous, 54-90(124) x 10-22(31) microns, fusoid-ventricose, apices studded with (0-1)2-4(7) horn-like projections, wall thickened in upper half (1.8-2.6 microns thick at neck), colorless, cheilocystidia in fascicles, (15)38-66(75) x (7)9-15(27) microns, "clavate to sphaeropedunculate to occasionally broadly fusoid", rarely with mucronate tip, smooth, colorless, thin-walled; cap cuticle hyphae without clamp connections, (Banerjee)

Spore deposit:
flesh-colored to pinkish-brown, (Arora), "cinnamon" (Kornerup(3) color), (Banerjee), salmon to pink (Miller)

Notes:
Pluteus cervinus group is found in BC (Redhead(5) as Pluteus cervinus). Collections were examined from WA, OR, ON, IL, KY, MA, MI, OH, TN, UT, WI, (Banerjee). Collections of var. scaber Lange (blackish young cap that is dark cinnamon-brown when mature, wrinkled disc, and stem surface fibrillose-scabrous) were examined from WA, CA, KY, WI (Banerjee). Pluteus cervinus group has been reported from ID by Andrew Parker, pers. comm. Pluteus exilis Singer is found in western North America, known with certainty from Santa Cruz County in CA north long the coastal forests up into BC, and collections were studied from CA and WA, (Justo(4)).

EDIBILITY

yes, especially when fresh and firm, do not eat any that are not clearly growing on wood (to avoid confusion with Entolomas), (Arora)