Biology:Gymnopilus validipes

Short description: Species of fungus

Gymnopilus validipes
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Hymenogastraceae
Genus:	Gymnopilus
Species:	G. validipes
Binomial name
Gymnopilus validipes (Peck) Hesler
Synonyms
Cortinarius validipes Gymnopolis magna

Gymnopilus validipes
Mycological characteristics
	gills on hymenium
	cap is convex
	hymenium is adnexed or adnate
	stipe has a ring
	spore print is yellow-orange
	ecology is saprotrophic
	edibility: psychoactive

Gymnopilus validipes is a mushroom in the family Hymenogastraceae. It is widely distributed in North America and Europe.

Description

• Pileus: 7.5 — 15 cm, convex to broadly convex, margin deeply incurved at first, becoming revolute with age, dry, fibrillose or with small ochraceous brown scales, pale-yellow or ochraceous buff, flesh soft, whitish, yellowish near the gills.
• Gills: Adnate to uncinate, close, thin, yellowish white becoming cinnamon.
• Spore print: Orangish brown.
• Stipe: 10 — 13 cm long, 2.5 – 5 cm. thick, equal or swelling in the middle, fleshy-fibrous, solid, elastic, fibrillose, concolorous, white within, the cortina leaves only a faint ring on the stalk. The specific epithet validipes means "having a robust stalk".
• Taste: Mild, standing in contrast to closely related bitter-tasting species.
• Odor: Pleasant.
• Microscopic features: Spores 8 — 10 X 5 — 6 μm, ellipsoid.

Gymnopilus validipes contains the hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin, the latter at a concentration of around 0.12%.

Habitat and formation

Gymnopilus validipes is found growing gregarious (in groups) to cespitose (in dense clumps) on tree stumps, hardwood logs and debris, widespread in the United States , common from the Great Lakes and eastward.

See also

• Psilocybin mushrooms
• List of Psilocybin mushrooms
• List of Gymnopilus species

References

• Stamets, Paul (1996). Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-9610798-0-0. 
• Hesler, L. R. (1969). North American species of Gymnopilus. New York: Hafner. 117 pp.

Wikidata ☰ Q5625033 entry