Gymnopilus sapineus (Fries) R. Maire
Treballs del Museo de Ciences Natural de Barcelona 15(2): 96. 1933.

Common Name: none

• Pileus

  Cap 2.5-5 cm broad, convex, expanding to plano-convex; margin at first incurved then decurved to nearly plane; surface dry, patchy fibrillose, or with scattered squamules, sometimes radially cracked in age; color: yellow-orange, the disk darker, fading towards the margin; flesh yellowish-orange; taste bitter.

• Lamellae

  Gills adnate, close, moderately broad, at first yellow, at maturity tinged bright orange-brown to rusty brown.

• Stipe

  Stipe 3-6 cm long, 5-7 mm thick, equal or tapering slightly towards the base, solid to stuffed, sometimes hollow in age; surface fibrillose, yellowish, bruising orange-brown; veil yellowish, fibrillose, evanescent, sometimes leaving fragments near the apex or on the immature cap margin.

• Spores

  Spores 7-10.5 x 4-6 µm, elliptical, roughened; spore print rusty-brown.

• Habitat

  Solitary, scattered or clustered on downed conifer wood; common in our area on small branches or cones.

• Edibility

  Inedible; very bitter.

• Comments

  Gymnopilus sapineus is characterized by a patchy squamulose, golden-orange cap, which sometimes cracks radially in age. The yellowish, fibrillose, evanescent veil and bruising of the stipe from yellowish-orange to orange-brown are also important field characters. Another Gymnopilus species commonly found in our area is G. luteocarneus. It differs in having a smoother, somewhat darker (orange-brown) cap.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Michael Wood: Gymnopilus sapineus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Gymnopilus sapineus (CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Gymnopilus sapineus (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 408 (D & P)
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol. 5): sp. 149 (D, I, & CP)
  • Hesler: p. 72 (D), fig. 6, 99, 100 (I), fig. 124 (P)
  • Miller: sp. 228 (D)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)