Chroogomphus vinicolor
Mycologia 56: 536. 1964.
Common Name: pine spike
Synonym: Gomphidius vinicolor Peck
Cap 3.0-9.0 cm broad, convex, broadly so in age, occasionally with a pointed umbo; margin inrolled, then incurved, decurved at maturity; surface viscid when moist, drying shiny, glabrous to to appressed fibrillose, mahogany brown to reddish-brown; flesh thick, orange to salmon, unchanging, vinaceous with 3% KOH; odor not distinctive, taste mild.
Gills decurrent, subdistant, orange-brown, becoming greyish brown in age; lamellulae in up to four-series.
Stipe 4.5-12.0 cm long, 0.5-2.5 cm thick, solid, slender to stout, often flexuous, narrowed towards the base; surface dry, orange-brown with scattered fibrils; partial veil fibrillose, ephemeral, leaving remnants high on the stipe.
Spores 15-21 x 5-7 µm, smooth, thin-walled, narrowly elliptical in face-view, subfusoid in profile, hilar appendage inconspicuous; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia thick-walled; spore print dark-grey to black.
Scattered to gregarious under pines; frequent with Pinus radiata (Monterey pine) in the San Francisco Bay Area; fruiting from early fall through mid-winter, often with Suillus pungens; common.
Edible, generally considered mediocre fresh; best when dried.
Chroogomphus vinicolor is recognized by a mahogany-colored cap, salmon-orange flesh, orange-brown stipe, decurrent gills and a tapering stipe. Chroogomphus ochraceus with which it is often confused has a more greyish-brown cap and paler gills at maturity. (for additional differences see Comments under Chroogomphus ochraceus). Microscopically, Chroogomphus vinicolor differs from Chroogomphus ochraceus in possessing thick-walled rather than thin-walled cystidia.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Kauffman, C.H. (1925). The Genus Gomphidius in the United States. Mycologia 17(3): 113-126.
Miller Jr., O.K. (1964). Monograph of Chroogomphus (Gomphidiaceae). Mycologia 56: 526-549.
Miller Jr., O.K. (2003). The Gomphidiaceae revisited: a worldwide perspective. Mycologia 95(1): 176-183.
Peck, C.H. (1898). Report of the State Botanist 1897. Ann. Rep. N.Y. St. Mus. 51: 291. (Protologue)
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
Singer, R. (1949). The genus Gomphidius Fries in North America. Mycologia 41: 462-489.
— closeup of gills and stipe apex
