Tricholomopsis rutilans
Plums and Custard
Status:
Common.
Meaning 'like a Tricholoma' which contains similar shaped mushrooms
Cap:
3-10cm
Stem:
4-8cm
Meaning 'becoming red'
Description
This beautiful mushroom with a name of Plums and Custard is sadly not edible. It is a species one would expect to find in woodlands that have rotting coniferous wood in them, where it often grows on rotting stumps and trunks. The contrasting plum colour of the cap against the custard yellow of the gills is very distinctive and once seen is not forgotten. Despite it having yellow gills the spore print is white, proving that gill colour alone can not be used to gauge what colour the spores will be, if in doubt always perform a spore print.
Smell
Not distinctive.
Season
Late Summer to late Autumn.
Habitat & Distribution
Grows on the wood of rotting coniferous trees, very occasionally decidious trees. Sometimes appearing to grow from the ground but it is actually attached to some buried wood just under the surface. Found across the UK, it never seems abundant in any one area but in conifer plantations and woods you can often find some on rotting coniferous wood.
Edibility
Inedible, considered by many to be too bitter and foul tasting, some people have suffered reactions to it.
Confusion Species
Spores
5-7 x 3.5-5.5µm, subglobose to elliptical.
Spore Print Colour
White.
The much rarer Prunes and Custard (Tricholomopsis decora), also grows on Pine stumps and branches but is much more yellow in appearance, it is mainly found in Scotland and is very rare in England.
The rare Magenta Rustgill (Gymnopilus dilepis) occurs on woodchip and has a ring on the stem and an orange-brown spore colour.