Deer Mushroom

Description

The Deer Mushroom has a cap 5–12 cm across, at first bell-shaped or hemispherical, later flat, in shades of brown and grey, from light to almost blackish-brown, usually darker in the centre. The surface is smooth and slightly silky, shiny in rainy weather. The gills under the cap are free: whitish in young fruiting bodies, later pink. The stem is white, covered with brown longitudinal fibrils, without a ring. The flesh is white and smells of radish or potato sprouts.

It grows from spring to late autumn on dead wood: on stumps, fallen trunks, in sawdust and among wood waste, in both broadleaf and coniferous forests. It appears singly or in small groups. In Poland it is very common.

Three features together distinguish it from many other gilled mushrooms: it grows on wood, has free gills and a pink spore print. Similar shield mushrooms, e.g. those with black gill edges or with a greenish-grey cap growing on willow, can be told apart reliably only under a microscope. If you are not sure of the species, do not pick it and do not eat it.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 5–12 cm, sometimes up to 15 cm; hemispherical or bell-shaped when young, often wrinkled, later convex and flat, sometimes with a blunt umbo. Surface smooth, matt to silky-shiny, with fine, embedded dark fibres arranged radially (visible under a hand lens); shiny in wet weather. Colour ranges from pale ochre-brown and grey-brown to blackish-brown, the centre often darker; albino individuals with an entirely white cap occur.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills free, i.e. not reaching the stipe, fairly crowded, ventricose. Creamy white in young fruiting bodies, then with a pink sheen, and salmon-pink when fully mature (from the ripening spores).

Stem

Height 5–12 cm, thickness 0.5–2 cm (sometimes up to 3 cm), cylindrical, less often club-shaped, usually slightly thicker at the base. Surface white to dirty white, covered with darker brown fibrils forming longitudinal streaks. No ring. Solid when young, hollow in old specimens.

Flesh

White or whitish; soft and pliable in the cap, rather brittle in the stipe. Smell fairly strong, raphanoid (like radish) or resembling potato sprouts, cellar-like; taste mild, musty or earthy, in some descriptions slightly bitterish with time. Do not taste the flesh in order to identify the mushroom.

Spore print and spores

Spore print pink to pinkish-brown. Spores smooth, ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, approx. 6.5–8 × 5–6.5 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph on rotting wood of broadleaf and coniferous trees: on trunks, stumps, thicker fallen branches, roots, bark, sawdust and wood waste; it does not grow on thin twigs. Particularly abundant on damp sawdust and piles of rotting wood chippings. Fruiting bodies solitary or in small groups.

Distribution. On all continents except Africa and Antarctica, and on many islands. Common in Europe and eastern North America; rare and probably introduced in western North America. Very common in Poland, in coniferous, broadleaf and mixed forests. It is not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. From spring to late autumn (April–December in Europe).

What can it be confused with?

• Pluteus atromarginatus (Polish: drobnołuszczak czarnoostrzowy) — Dark brown or black gill edges; grows on coniferous wood.
• Pluteus salicinus (Polish: drobnołuszczak zielonawoszary) — Cap blackish-grey, without brown tones; grows on willow wood.
• Megacollybia platyphylla (Polish: pieniążnica szerokoblaszkowa) — More distant, broader, always white gills attached to the stipe; numerous rhizomorphs at the base of the stipe; white spore print.
• Entoloma spp. (pinkgills) — Similarly coloured species have gills attached to the stipe (not free) and characteristic angular spores.
• Other Pluteus species (including P. rangifer, P. elaphinus, P. hongoi, P. exilis) — Several similar shield mushrooms; reliable separation is possible only by microscopic examination.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• Described by Jacob Christian Schäffer in 1774 as Agaricus cervinus; its current genus name was given by Kummer in 1871.
• The epithet cervinus (deer-like) refers to the deer-brown colour of the cap; in Schäffer's original description the German term "rehfarbig" was used.
• The pleurocystidia of this mushroom bear 2–6 sharp hooks at the tip, resembling deer antlers.
• The fruiting bodies are food for the larvae of the beetle Tritoma mimetica, of the family Erotylidae.