| Major Groups > Gilled Mushrooms > Pale-Spored > Lepiota & Satellite Genera > Leucocoprinus birnbaumii |
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Leucocoprinus birnbaumii [ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Agaricaceae > Leucocoprinus . . . ]
by Michael Kuo This little yellow mushroom is the subject of many frantic e-mails to MushroomExpert.Com, since it has a tendency to pop up unexpectedly in people's flower pots--even indoors! Leucocoprinus birnbaumii won't hurt you, unless you eat it. It won't hurt your plant. It won't hurt your pets or your children, unless they eat it. There is no getting rid of it, short of replacing all the soil in your planter (and even then it might reappear). Since it makes such a beautiful addition to your household flora, I recommend learning to love it--and teaching your children to love it, too. You might also impart the idea that mushrooms are very, very cool--but shouldn't be eaten. Perhaps your child would like to become an awesome and famous mycologist some day. I would love to encourage your child's interest in mushrooms by putting his or her drawing of Leucocoprinus birnbaumii on this Web page (at least temporarily). Leucocoprinus birnbaumii is often reported as poisonous; do not eat it (handling it, however, won't hurt you). Although a Texas collector (Hillhouse; see H. V. Smith & Weber, 1982) reports eating "fairly large amounts of these on several occasions without upset of any kind," I do not recommend experimenting. See also the report below about an apparent poisoning of pet tarantulas. Description: Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, gregariously, or clustered in flower pots, greenhouses, and so on--or, in warm conditions, outside in gardens and other cultivated areas; also growing in hardwood and conifer forests, especially in disturbed ground areas (pathsides, etc.); outdoors in summer, indoors year-round; widely distributed in North America. Cap: 2.5-6 cm, oval when young, becoming broadly conical or bell-shaped; dry; powdery to scaly; the margin lined or grooved nearly to the center; bright to pale yellow, often with a darker center. Gills: Free from the stem; yellow to pale yellow; crowded. Stem: 3-10 cm long; 1-5 mm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to apex; dry; smooth or powdery; with a fragile, yellow ring that often disappears. Flesh: Yellow throughout; very thin. Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste mild or bitter. Spore Print: White. Microscopic Features: Spores 8-13 x 5.5-8 µ; smooth; elliptical; dextrinoid; thick-walled; with a small pore. Basidioles inflated, brachybasidiole-like. Cheilocystidia to about 65 x 15 µ; ventricose or irregular, often with fingerlike projections. Pleurocystidia absent. REFERENCES: (Corda, 1839) Singer, 1962. (Bolton, 1788 [text, illustration]; Saccardo, 1912; H. V. Smith, 1954; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; H. V. Smith, 1981; H. V. Smith & Weber, 1982; Weber & Smith, 1985; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Metzler & Metzler, 1992; Horn, Kay & Abel, 1993; Barron, 1999; McNeil, 2007.) Lepiota lutea is a synonym, as are Leucocoprinus luteus, Leucocoprinus flos-sulfuris, and Lepiota cepaestipes var. luteus. There are several closely related species, including Leucocoprinus flavescens (with a brownish cap center and smaller spores) and Lepiota fragilissimus, with a thin cap and pale gills. Leucocoprinus cepaestipes has a white or pinkish cap, and smaller spores. Poisonous to Tarantulas? I received the report below from a visitor to the site. The e-mail was accompanied by photos of Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. The tarantulas are 6-7" Goliath Bird Eaters "Theraphosa blondi" from Venezuela. They require warm humid temperatures to thrive. I currently have them in 10 gallon tanks filled with approximately 6" of Peat Moss from Canada. Sunday night I had an outbreak of mushrooms that came out from under the water dishes. As far as I could see it was a single mushroom in either tank. This has never happened before. One of the mushrooms was about 5" tall, the cap was flat and round and about 2 1/2" wide, the stem was slightly curved and very thin. They were bright lemon yellow and when I pulled it out it was wet and slimy and has a strong odor. In both of these particular tanks the mushrooms seemed to have bloomed overnight then wilted and fell in the water. I found one tarantula dead in the water and the other tarantula in his dish and acting as if he had a neuro disorder. Throughout Monday/Tuesday afternoon the tarantula stumbled about, losing control of his legs and walking as if drunken. By Wednesday he had passed on. The rest of my collection is healthy and the only correlation between these two were the mushrooms slipping into the water supply. Further Online Information: Leucocoprinus birnbaumii at MykoWeb |
The photos below were sent in by MushroomExpert.Com readers whose flower pots produced Leucocoprinus birnbaumii:
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Cite this page as: Kuo, M. (2007, October). Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/leucocoprinus_birnbaumii.html |