Rhodocybe 'lateritia group'

The fruit body is a mushroom with the cap atop a central stem. The smooth, dry cap may be up to 9 centimetres in diameter and colour ranges from brownish pink to cinnamon to reddish brown (seemingly a function of the state of hydration or dryness of the cap). There may be scattered, darker spots (as if the cap had been stained by dark droplets). The gills are a pale pinkish buff to flesh colour and may fork. The smooth, dry stem is up to to 6 centimetres long and 1-2 centimetres in diameter, often widening markedly towards the base. It is white, but shows a buff colour when roughly handled. The white is much like a dense dusting over the buff underlay.

Spore print: Pinkish brown.

This species is found growing on soil.

The dry mushrooms have a curry-like smell, though if held too close to the nose you may get more of a somewhat unpleasant mushroomy smell, so the curry smell must be carried by a more volatile compound. You may notice no smell in fresh mushrooms.

Look-alikes

This is not a very distinctive fungus. The pinkish-brown spore print is the best macroscopic clue that you have Rhodocybe or some related genus and a microscopic study would then confirm exactly what. A few other genera give pinkish brown spore prints, but in those cases (unlike Rhodocybe and relatives) none of the gills reach the stem. Size, stature, colour and a ‘droplet-stained’ cap would support a visual identification, confusion with other species could still happen – until much more is known about local fungi.

Notes & references

Rhodocybe lateritia was first described in the Baroni & Gates paper, based on material collected in Tasmania and thus far seems to have been known only from that state. For now it is safest to refer to ‘lateritia group’ for local specimens. One comment by those authors was “Odour spicy when fresh, more spicy-musty or curry-like when dried, some fresh specimens not always with distinctive spicy odour”. Co-David et al argued that Rhodocybe should be merged with Clitopilus (with Rhodocybe lateritia becoming Clitopilus lateritius) but Kluting et al argued that a more detailed analysis supported Rhodocybe as a distinct genus.

Baroni, T.J.  & Gates, G.M. ( 2006). New species and records of Rhodocybe (Entolomataceae, Agaricales) from Tasmania, Australian Systematic Botany, 19, 343-358.

Co-David, D., Langeveld, D. & Noordeloos, M.E. (2009) Molecular phylogeny and spore evolution of Entolomataceae, Persoonia, 23, 147-176.

Kluting, K. L., Baroni, T.J. & Bergemann, S.E. (2014). Toward a stable classification of genera within the Entolomataceae; a phylogenetic re-evaluation of the Rhodocybe-Clitopilus clade, Mycologia, 106, 1127-1142.