Suillus salmonicolor

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by Michael Kuo

Suillus salmonicolor is this year's "Just Kick Me Now" mushroom. For some reason, about once a year I get too lazy to collect a really cool mushroom--usually on a day when I have already collected lots of interesting things, and spent many hours walking through the woods. Last year it was an awesome clump of Pholiotas. This year it was Suillus salmonicolor, which I found in a jack pine stand in northern Michigan. I just didn't have the energy to make another collection (the process usually takes a good twenty minutes once I take photos, document the mushroom's ecology, and record features that may not be evident later).

Fortunately, the mushroom's mycorrhizal relationship with jack pine and its distinctive appearance make it an easy Suillus to identify. Its partial veil has attitude, attaching itself fairly low on the stem and appearing like an inverted sheath with a thick, white lower edge. The cap and stem are orangish, and the stem features dark glandular dots.

Suillus salmonicolor is edible, and rated highly by some authors; apparently it has a lemony flavor. So, if you're into slime, have at it. Maybe it would make a nice lemony addition to an okra and oyster casserole.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with jack pine; growing alone or gregariously; late summer and fall; east of the Rocky Mountains.

Cap: 3-10 cm; convex becoming broadly convex or flat; slimy; smooth; orangish, dirty yellowish, brownish, olive brown, or cinnamon.

Pore Surface: At first covered with a thick, orangish to grayish partial veil that is baggy and rubbery, with a white roll of tissue on the lower edge; yellow to orangish, becoming brownish with age; not bruising; 1-2 round or angular pores per mm; not boletinoid; tubes to about 1 cm deep.

Stem: 3-10 cm long; up to 1.5 cm thick; equal or with a slightly enlarged base; covered with glandular dots that are pale reddish brown at first and become darker with age; whitish to yellowish or orangish; with a gelatinous ring.

Flesh: Orangish to yellowish, often salmon orange in the stem base; not staining on exposure.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Cap purple to reddish or blackish with KOH or ammonia; brown with iron salts. Flesh purple or purplish red with KOH or ammonia; dark brown or black with iron salts.

Spore Print: Cinnamon brown or brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 3-3.5 µ; smooth; subfusoid.

Suillus subluteus and Suillus pinorigidus are synonyms.

REFERENCES: (Frost, 1874) Halling, 1983. (Frost, 1874; Singer, 1945; Smith & Thiers, 1964; Snell & Dick, 1970; Smith & Thiers, 1971; Grund & Harrison, 1976; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Halling, 1983; Weber & Smith, 1985; Both, 1993; Barron, 1999; Bessette, Roody & Bessette, 2000; McNeil, 2006; Miller & Miller, 2006; Ortiz-Santana et al., 2007.)

Suillus corthunatus is a similar species with a more southerly range; it is mycorrhizal with loblolly pine and longleaf pine. Its partial veil lacks the cottony basal roll of Suillus salmonicolor. Confusion between Suillus corthunatus, "Suillus pinorigidus," and "Suillus subluteus" (the latter two of which were synonymized with Suillus salmonicolor by Halling in 1983) is common in field guides.

Further Online Information:

Suillus subluteus in Smith & Thiers, 1971

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2004, November). Suillus salmonicolor. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/suillus_salmonicolor.html