Poplar Fieldcap

Description

The poplar fieldcap is a mushroom with a cap 4–12 cm across, brown to ochre, smooth or wrinkled, cracked in dry weather. It has crowded gills, initially white or cream, then brown, and a pale cream stem with a white, membranous ring just under the cap.

It grows on wood, almost exclusively on poplars, less often on alders and elms, often at the base of living trunks. In Poland it is very rare, and its localities in the literature are doubtful. It is under partial species protection.

Because of its rarity and protection it should not be collected; because it can be confused with other mushrooms growing on wood, do not eat it if you are not sure of the species.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 4–12 cm; hemispherical when young, then flat-arched, finally flat. Surface smooth or wrinkled with bumps, cracked in dry weather, dry. Initially brown, then brown-ochre or ochre, darker in the centre.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills crowded, notched and decurrent with a small tooth, initially white to cream, then brown.

Stem

Height 3–15 cm, thickness 1–2 cm, cylindrical, narrowed at the bottom, solid, surface pale cream. A white, membranous ring just under the cap.

Flesh

White, compact, with a pleasant smell and taste. Do not taste the flesh of unknown mushrooms.

Spore print and spores

Spore print dirty dark brownish. Spores pale brownish, ellipsoid or kidney-shaped, smooth, 9–11 × 6–7 µm, with an indistinct germ pore.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph and parasite. Grows almost exclusively on poplar wood, less often on alders and elms; at the base of living trunks and in their lower part up to a height of about 1.5 m, also on dead trunks, most often on roots.

Distribution. Europe, Morocco, Japan, Korea, Georgia, Taiwan; the range coincides with the area of vine cultivation. Very rare in Poland: up to 2020, 5 localities were reported, all doubtful. On the Red List of plants and fungi of Poland it has category E (endangered). The species is under partial protection (Dz.U. 2014 item 1408; earlier in 1995–2004), without exemptions justified by agriculture, forestry or fisheries.

Fruiting. No data.

Interesting facts

• In Poland it has the status E (endangered) on the Red List of plants and fungi.
• Up to 2020, 5 Polish localities were reported, all doubtful or erroneous.
• Its range in Europe coincides with the area of vine cultivation.
• In 2014 Vizzini and Angelini moved it to the genus Cyclocybe; earlier it was placed in Agrocybe and Pholiota.