Agaricus sang1
Key to Gilled Mushrooms KeyThis is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.
Agaricales OrderFruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)
Agaricus GenusGills free
Spore print chocolate brown
Annulus almost always present, usually membranous
The gills are usually pink or silvery-grey at first, but are colored chocolate brown at maturity from the developing spores
The cap and stalk are usually some sort of white or greyish brown, but may have fibrils or scales that are darker (like the portobello)
Growing on the ground, wood chips, or other organic debris
Sanguinolenti SectionFlesh stains red when bruised or in age. No color reaction with KOH
Non-fibrillose Sanguinolenti SubSectionCap distinctly scaly or smooth
Agaricus sang1
Here are the characters that distinguish this species from the others in its group. For its more general characters, see higher up on the page.
If there's just a few words or a microscopic feature here, a more thorough description can be found above.
Diagnosis
- Cap up to 4" across; cuticle dark brown and solid in young specimens, but soon breaking up into sparse scales as the cap expands
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Buttons marshmallow-shaped, with a two-layered cogwheel partial veil; cuticle dark brown and solid
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Expanded caps retaining a brown umbo, but with the rest of the cuticle broken up into sparse scales (as in photo). At this point, the cap also starts to redden.
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In age, the cap cuticle breaks up further, into shaggy tufts (see second photo), and becomes even more red.
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Cap and stem flesh redden slowly and slightly.
Comments
This is the only member of the Sanguinolenti that I have found in the mid-west. The two photos shown here were taken a year apart at our June foray at Beck Lake. I thought that they were two separate species until I found all the life-stages together on a trip to Minnesota in Sept. 2001. The photos of buttons from that trip will be up as soon as I get a film scanner.