Specimen # 13 Agaric (gilled) Fungus

Fig. 1 View of both the gill and cap side of the
shelflike fungus (Kuo, 2009).

Name: Hohenbuehella atrocaerulea
Family: Pleurotaceae
Collection date: November 8, 2011
Habitat: Growing on a decaying log
Location: Hiram field station
Description: The cap color ranges from nearly black to dark brown or tanhas (can be consistently darker and sometimes demonstrate blue shades) It grows on the dead wood of hardwoods and, occasionally, conifers. The gills are whitish and eventually become a dull yellow. It grows gregariously or in shelf-like clusters throughout summer and fall. It is widely distributed in eastern North America, and reported from California. The cap is about 2-5 cm across, convex, fan-shaped to semicircular or kidney-shaped. It is rubbery and moist, fairly smooth, it can be finely fuzzy in area, especially towards where it is attached to its substrate. The stem is absent but can sometimes have a pseudostem. It does have a white spore print(Kuo, 2009).
Collector: Brooke Warren
Keys used:Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. New York: Ten Speed Press.
Keying steps:
Key to the Basidiomycetes
1A. Basidia and spores borne externally (on the exposed surfaces of gills, tubes,
spines, branches, lobes, etc.); spores forcibly discharged at
maturity, i.e., a spore print often (but not always) obtainable; fruiting body with a cap and stalk, or clublike,
or branched, or bracketlike, or crustlike (without a stalk or sometimes without a cap) or lobed  or bloblike, etc. ... 2
2B. Not as above... Hymenomycetes p. 58


Key to the Hymenomycetes1B. Not as above; pores and tubes absent... 3
3A. Underside of cap with radiating blades (gills)... Agaricales p. 59

Key to the Agaricalesy
1B. Not as above; spores forcibly discharged, hence a spore print obtainable if spores are being produced; gills
exposed at maturity; common and widespread... 2
2A. Spore print white to buff, yellow, yellow-orange, or lilac-tinged...3
3B. Neither volva nor warts present (but cap and stalk may have scales or fibrils)... 4
4B. Not as above; veil absent, or if present the ngills normally attached to stalk... 6
6B. Not as above; gills usually platelike or bladelike... 7
7B. Not as above... 8
8B. Not with above features... 9
9B. Not as above; gills not normally waxy; stalk central to lateral or absent; on ground or wood...
Tricholomataceae, p. 129

Key to the Tricholomatacea
1B. Not growing on other mushrooms, or if so then gills well-developed, thin, close... 2
2B. Not as above... 3
3A. Stalk absent, or if present then typically off center to lateral; usually growing on wood... 4
4B. Fruiting body fleshy, or if tough then not as above... 5
5B. Not as above; gill edges usually entire (but sometimes wavy)... Pleurotus & Allies, p. 132

Key to Pleurotus & Allies
1B. Not with above features... 2
2B. Veil absent in all stages...4
4B. Not as above... 5
5B. Not as above... 6
6B. Not as above... 7
7B. Not as above (larger or differently colored)... 11
11B. Not with above features... 12
12B. Gills some other color (white, gray, brownish, violet, etc., but may age or discolor yellowish)... 15
15B. CAp smaller, or if large then not as above... 17
17B. Not as above.... 18
18B. Not with above features; common... 19
19A. Gills pallid (white to creamy, yellowish, or gray)... 20
20A. Gills narrow (shallow) and crowded; fruiting body small to medium-sized... 21
21B. Not as above... 22
22A. Cap dark grayish-brown to bluish black; usually found in the wild... Hohenbuehelia atrocaerulea
(see H. petaloides group, p.136)

Additional References:
Kuo, M. (2009, April). Hohenbuehelia atrocaerulea var. grisea. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com
Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hohenbuehelia_atrocaerulea_grisea.html
Links:
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hohenbuehelia_atrocaerulea_grisea.html