''Pluteus leoninus'', commonly known as lion shield, can occasionally be found growing on dead wood in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
and
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
. The underside of the cap is typical of the genus ''
Pluteus
''Pluteus'' is a large genus of fungi with over 300 species. They are wood rotting saprobes with pink spore prints and gills that are free from the stem.
The Latin word ''Pluteus'' means ''shed or penthouse''.
Characteristics of the genus ...
'' — the gills are pale, soon becoming pink when the spores ripen. But the upper surface is a bright tawny or olivaceous yellow. The species name ''leoninus'' (meaning
leonine) refers to this cap colour.
Description
This description is combined from several references.
[
*The golden to olive-yellow convex cap is 3–7 cm in diameter, is ]hygrophanous
The adjective hygrophanous refers to the color change of mushroom tissue (especially the pileus surface) as it loses or absorbs water, which causes the pileipellis to become more transparent when wet and opaque when dry.
When identifying hygroph ...
, and usually has a grooved edge. The darker central disc has a slight velvety tomentum
Tomentum may refer to:
* Plant trichomes, a covering of closely matted or fine hairs on plant leaves.
* Tomentum (anatomy), short, soft pubescence or a covering of fine, soft hairs.
{{disambig ...
.
*The gills are yellowish at first, then salmon pink (the colour of the spore powder).
*The stipe is up to about 7 cm, often striate
In geology, a striation is a groove, created by a geological process, on the surface of a rock or a mineral.
In structural geology, striations are linear furrows, or linear marks, generated from fault movement. The striation's direction revea ...
, being white to cream, and often darker near the base.
*The mushroom grows on stumps and wood debris of broad-leaved trees and sometimes of conifers.
*At the microscopic level, the filamentous cap cuticle is a trichoderm. The gills have scanty bladder-shaped pleurocystidia
A cystidium (plural cystidia) is a relatively large cell found on the sporocarp of a basidiomycete (for example, on the surface of a mushroom gill), often between clusters of basidia. Since cystidia have highly varied and distinct shapes that ar ...
, and abundant fusiform cheilocystidia
A cystidium (plural cystidia) is a relatively large cell found on the sporocarp of a basidiomycete (for example, on the surface of a mushroom gill), often between clusters of basidia. Since cystidia have highly varied and distinct shapes that ar ...
. The spores are smooth, almost globular, approximately 7×6 μm.
Many authorities consider ''Pluteus fayodii'' to be a synonym of ''P. leoninus'',[ but according to ]Species Fungorum
''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (scientific names) in the fungus kingdom. the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partners along with Landcare Research and the Institute of M ...
, they are distinct.[
]
Edibility
According to some sources,[ it is edible but has little to no taste.
]
See also
* List of ''Pluteus'' species
References
Edible fungi
leoninus
Fungi of Europe
Fungi of Africa
Fungi described in 1871
{{Agaricales-stub