Tricholoma saponaceum (Fries) Staude
Die Schwamme Mitteldeut.: 127. 1858.

Common Name: none

• Pileus

  Cap 4-9 cm broad, convex, often with a low umbo, expanding to nearly plane; margin incurved at first, undulate, sometimes raised in age; surface moist, soon dry, smooth, in dry weather cracked, occasionally areolate; color: olive-brown, grey-brown, yellowish-brown, the margin usually paler; flesh white, thick, usually turning pale pink when injured; odor: mild when young, soapy at maturity; taste: soapy.

• Lamellae

  Gills adnexed to notched, subdistant, broad, white to pallid, sometimes with a faint greenish cast.

• Stipe

  Stipe 4.5-8 cm tall, 1.5-2.0 cm thick, solid, equal to ventricose, sometimes tapering to a narrowed, slightly rooted base; surface smooth or finely scaled, pallid to tinged like the cap, bruising slowly yellowish-brown to brown where handled, staining pinkish where injured, particularly at the base; veil absent.

• Spores

  Spores 5-6.5 x 3.5-4.5 µm, elliptical, smooth, nonamyloid; spore print white.

• Habitat

  Solitary to gregarious in hardwood/conifer woods; fruiting from after the fall rains to December and January.

• Edibility

  Inedible.

• Comments

  Tricholoma saponaceum is one of the chameleons of the mushroom world. Depending on the collection, the cap surface may vary from smooth, cracked to areolate, the color from olive-grey, grey brown to yellowish brown. Typical material is usually colored some shade of olive-grey, the cap smooth. Additional field characters that help distinguish this mushroom include well-spaced, pallid gills, often an enlarged mid-stipe, a soapy somewhat unpleasant odor at maturity, and a pinkish-staining stipe base.

• References

  Shanks, Kris M. (1994). A Sytematic Study of Tricholoma in California. Masters Thesis, San Franciso State University: San Francisco, CA. 207 p.
  Shanks, Kris M. (1997). The Agaricales (Gilled Fungi) of California. 11. Tricholomataceae II. Tricholoma. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA. 54 p.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Dimitar Bojantchev: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP) -- young basidiocarps
  • Boleslaw Kuznik -- Hunting for Mushrooms: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Agaricales of the Costa Rican Quercus Forests: Tricholoma saponaceum (D & CP)
  • Agaricales of the Costa Rican Quercus Forests: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Na Grzyby: Tricholoma saponaceum (D & CP)
  • Informationszentrale gegen Vergiftungen der Universiteat Bonn: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Pilzgalerie.de: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Page perso de JJ.Wuilbaut: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Pilze, Pilze, Pilze: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Tricholoma saponaceum (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 184 (D & P)
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol. 3): sp. 430 (D, I, & CP)
  • Jordan: p. 191 (D & CP)
  • Lincoff: p.804 (D), plate 358 (CP)
  • McKenny et al.: p. 110 (D & CP)
  • Miller: sp. 166 (D & CP)
  • Orr & Orr: p. 262 (D)
  • Phillips: p. 44 (D & CP)
  • Smith (1975): sp. 89 (D & CP)
  
  

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