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[ Basidiomycota > Russulales > Auriscalpiaceae > Lentinellus . . . ] Lentinellus cochleatus by Michael Kuo, 28 August 2025 This is one of the more distinctive members of the genus Lentinellus—if you examine it closely. Like other members of the genus it grows on deadwood and features saw-toothed gills, a white spore print, and tough, bitter flesh. But Lentinellus cochleatus can be separated on the basis of its folded, funnel-shaped caps, arising from well-developed stems. When young the stems can be easily seen, but with growth the overlapping caps can obscure them, making Lentinellus cochleatus appear stem-less and pleurotoid until you begin to pry the caps apart. Under the microscope, Lentinellus cochleatus is distinct in featuring not only sexual spores (like other spores in the genus they are finely ornamented and amyloid) but also cloning spores ("chlamydospores"), produced on the upper stem; these are large, thick-walled, and brown. Compare Lentinellus cochleatus with Hohenbuehelia petaloides, which has tough, rubbery flesh and does not grow directly from stumps and logs; additionally, its microscopic details are very different. Description: Ecology: Saprobic; growing in clusters on the wood of hardwoods; summer and fall; originally described from Europe (Persoon 1793); distributed in Europe and North America, especially in northern and montane areas but also in temperate zones. The illustrated and described collection is from Michigan. Cap: 3–7 cm across; funnel-shaped to folded and shell-shaped, but at maturity sometimes appearing fan-shaped or semicircular due to the tightly overlapped growth; planoconvex, with a central depression; bald; pale brown to beige, developing brown spots; the margin becoming dark brown. Gills: Decurrent or radiating; close or nearly distant; with saw-toothed the edges; short-gills frequent; creamy becoming brownish. Stem: 20–25 x 3–6 mm; equal; bald; beige to pale brown. Flesh: Thin; whitish; tough; unchanging when sliced; without a blackish line separating the cap surface and the flesh (best assessed with magnification—a magnifying glass or dissecting microscope—of a freshly sliced section from a dried specimen). Odor and Taste: Odor fragrant and anise-like, or not distinctive; taste acrid and bitter. Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on fresh cap surface; dried flesh brown (not amyloid) with Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution. Spore Print: White. Microscopic Features: Spores 4–4.5 x 3–4 µm; subglobose or broadly ellipsoid; sparsely, finely spiny (difficult to detect with light microscopy); amyloid. Basidia 20–24 x 3–5 µm; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Cystidia not found. Pileipellis a layer of generative hyphae 2–5 µm wide, smooth, hyaline in KOH. Skeletal hyphae not found. Stipitipellis of smooth, hyaline, clamped hyphae mostly 3–5 µm wide, with rounded apices or occasionally terminating in a developing chlamydospore; chlamydospores 10–18 µm, sphaeropedunculate, smooth, thick-walled, brownish-walled in KOH. Clamp connections present. REFERENCES: (C. H. Persoon, 1793) P. Karsten, 1879. (Kauffman, 1918; Miller & Stewart, 1971; Phillips, 1981; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1991; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Barron, 1999; Petersen & Hughes, 2004; McNeil, 2006; Boccardo et al., 2008; Buczacki et al., 2012; Kibby, 2017; Knudsen, 2018; Læssøe & Petersen, 2019.) Herb. Kuo 007312503. This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms. |
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Cite this page as: Kuo, M. (2025, August). Lentinellus cochleatus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: /lentinellus_cochleatus.html |