Inocybe adaequata

[Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Cortinariaceae > Inocybe . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

As I am treating it, Inocybe adaequata is a reddish brown to wine-colored species characterized by its hairy cap, its large size (for an Inocybe), the absence of cystidia on the gill faces, and more or less elliptical spores that lack spines or nodules. As with almost all species of Inocybe, a microscope is required for positive identification. Several field guides treat a mushroom matching this description as "Inocybe jurana," but that name has been synonymized with Inocybe adaequata.

A mold appears to attack Inocybe adaequata with some regularity. My specimens, from Kentucky, grew among others that were being parasitized by a blackish mold. I took great pains to collect and photograph specimens that lacked the mold--but now I wish I hadn't, since Roger Phillips also documents a black mold on his Inocybe jurana collection from Europe (see the link below). I find no microscopic evidence of the mold on the specimens I saved, so I will have to wait until I find Inocybe adaequata again to study the phenomenon further.

Inocybe jurana and Inocybe rhodiola are synonyms. As I am treating Inocybe adaequata, Inocybe frumentacea and Inocybe frumentacea var. jurana as described by Kauffman (1918) are synonyms.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously--apparently with some frequency in disturbed ground; summer and fall (and winter in California); widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 3-8 cm; conical to bell-shaped, becoming broadly bell-shaped; dry; radially hairy; purplish brown to reddish brown, somewhat darker over the center; the margin usually splitting and the surface usually becoming radially separated.

Gills: Attached to the stem but sometimes pulling away from it in age; close; white, becoming brownish with maturity (and then often with whitish edges); sometimes discoloring pinkish to reddish. The brown edges on the gills in the second photo are the aberrant result of having been compressed against the stem in development.

Stem: 3-8 cm long; up to 1.5 cm thick; equal, or with a swollen base; dry; hairy; whitish above, becoming pinkish to pinkish lilac below; sometimes bruising pinkish red.

Flesh: Whitish, but often pinkish or pale lilac in places.

Odor: Mildly mealy, according to most authors--but also reported as "fruity" or "unpleasant." My collection had a spermatic odor.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: Brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9-15 x 5-8 µ; more or less elliptical (or bean-shaped, or kidney-shaped); smooth. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia 45-60 x 9-12; cylindrical to clavate; thin-walled.

REFERENCES: (Britzelmayr, 1879) Saccardo, 1887. (Kauffman, 1918; Kauffman, 1924; Arora, 1986; Hansen & Knudsen, 1992; Phillips, 2005.) Herb. Kuo 10010404.

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2005, February). Inocybe adaequata. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/inocybe_adaequata.html