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Rhodocybe roseiavellanea

by Michael Kuo, 10 July 2025

Found primarily in the southeastern United States, this entolomatoid mushroom features a pinkish cap that fades to whitish and develops watery spots. The gills run down the stem, and become pinkish as the spores mature (the spore print is also pinkish). Since a number of entolomatoid (and clitocyboid) species are similar in appearance, Rhodocybe roseiavellanea should probably be subjected to microscopic observation for confident identification; look for distinctive spores (described below), cheilocystidia (these can be hard to locate since they barely project beyond the basidia), and a lack of clamp connections.

Thanks to Andy Methven for documenting, collecting, and preserving Rhodocybe roseiavellanea for study; his collection is deposited in The Herbarium of Michael Kuo.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously under oaks (especially southern live oak) and pines (especially loblolly pine); summer and fall, or over winter; originally described from Florida (Murrill 1938); distributed in the southeastern United States; also reported from the West Coast of North America, the Caribbean, England, and Japan. The illustrated and described collection is from North Carolina.

Cap: 2.5–6 cm across; convex to planoconvex or nearly flat; dry; bald, or very finely silky; pinkish when fresh and young, fading to whitish; with watery spots; margin incurved.

Gills: Running down the stem; close or nearly distant; short-gills frequent; whitish to pinkish, becoming brownish with age.

Stem: 3–4 cm long; 0.5–1 cm thick; equal or club-shaped; dry; bald; pinkish to whitish, discoloring brownish; base attached to white rhizoids.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive, or mealy.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on dried cap surface negative.

Spore Print: Pinkish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7–9 x 4–6 µm; ellipsoid, lacrymoid, or subamygdaliform; ranging from smooth to multifaceted; ridged longitudinally in end view; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 27–32 x 4–5 µm; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Cheilocystidia 30 x 2–4 µm; cylindric or narrowly fusoid-ventricose; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH; scarcely projecting. Pleurocystidia not found. Lamellar trama subparallel. Pileipellis a cutis of elements 3–6 µm wide, smooth, hyaline to brownish in KOH; terminal cells short-septate, with rounded apices. Clamp connections not found.

REFERENCES: (W. A. Murrill, 1938) R. Singer, 1951. (Kimbrough, 1972; Lennox, 1979; Baroni, 1981; Baroni & Mattock, 2001; Baroni et al., 2020.) Herb. Kuo 08102401.

This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.

Spores

Cheilocystidia

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2020, December). Rhodocybe roseiavellanea. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/rhodocybe_roseiavellanea.html