Man-on-a-Horse, or maybe it was a donkey.

Posted by Joe M.

I guess this story is about the pleasure of learning new things, on a field of interest:
About a month ago I found some Tricholoma equestre out of Sage Hen, Idaho. I was happy since it was the first time that I found them, and I little bit sad too because they have been label no longer edible because some poisoning in Europe; see picture:

Tricholoma equestre

 

This weekend I went to a place close to Cascade, Idaho, and found many different species of mushrooms. Towards the end I found these; see picture:

When I saw them I thought "T. equestre" growing on sandy soil; just as the Smith-Weber book said.

I cleaned them, and here they are:

 

Tricholoma leucophyllum

 

I said to myself, eh,  wait a minute the gills and stipe are white instead of yellow...what mushroom is this?...

 

Tricholomas of North America's key points to T. intermedium, sejunctum and arvernense, but also points to Tricholoma leucophyllum on the T.intermedium's description this way: " ...T. intermedium merely represents a variety of T.sejunctum, whereas, according to Michael Beug, Daniel Stunz considered T.leucophyllum to be a variant of  T.equestre, which would lend to support for the existence of two species."

 Smith-Weber's book also refers to collections with white gills as Tricholoma leucopyllum, and since

these mushrooms caps are not particularly fibrillose or have gills with yellow flushes, seems easier to me to think of them as an specie of T. equestre.

A thing woth to mention is the multiple lamellulae (short gills), that make the gills look like they are serrated, and this has confused me in the past with other tricholomas. (Also, the picture seems as if the gills show some yellow on the left, but I can say that is just some defect on the picture itself).

Thanks, I hope this was entertaining. Happy hunting.