© Steve Trudell
The Gomphidius Family is easily learned, and all species are edible. Several characteristics make the Gomphidiaceae easy to recognize. The first and most obvious is the name which, like most Latin scientific names, is an attempt to describe it. Gomphidius means "little stake" or "peg" and refers to the shape of the young mushrooms with rounded caps and long, central stems that taper to a blunt tip at the bottom, very much like wooden tent stakes. The caps become convex and finally more or less depressed in age.
The second and surest feature of identification is the gills and spore print. There are very few mushroom genera which make black or blackish spore prints. Of those few, only one family, Gomphidiaceae, has gills which are decurrent, that is, the gills extend down the stem for one-half to two inches. Under the microscope the spores are mostly large and spindle-shaped. The Gomphidiaceae grow on the ground in woods in association with conifers.
For a time all species were lumped under the original genus, Gomphidius. During years of research, Dr. Orson K. Miller, Jr., professor of biology at Virginia Polytechnical Institute, determined that one section contained sufficient chemical and microscopic differences to warrant separate generic rank. This new genus is called Chroogomphus (pronounced crow-oh-gom-fus).
Fortunately visual differences are apparent to mushroom hunters who do not have the use Of a microscope.
Gomphidius and Chroogomphus species have neither volvas nor skirtlike rings, although most species have a veil when young which leaves a fragmentary ring on the stem of the mushroom as it matures.
In cross-section the gills are thick, distant, and waxy. The range of viscidity is great and helps to separate the species into smaller groups. Viscid describes mushrooms that have a layer of gelatinlike cells in the skin of the cap or stem that react like gelatin crystals. When there is much moisture available, they are slimy. After a dry spell they become dry and shiny like a varnished surface. This gluten should be wiped off before cooking the mushrooms. All species of Gomphidius are gelatinous in greater or lesser degrees, but the species of Chroogomphus are less so, some being viscid, some subviscid, some dry and fibrillose-scaly.
The species of Gomphidius, when very young, have caps with white or pale gray flesh inside, and the gills answer to the same description. Species of Chroogomphus have cap flesh and gills with yellow-buff, dull orange, or winey-red coloration.
In addition, most of the species of Gomphidius have a white column in the stem below the cap extending to a bright yellow base, while most Chroogomphus have stems in the same color series as the caps and lack the bright yellow base.
It is not necessary to tell the species apart to eat them, provided you have determined that the mushrooms have decurrent gills and leave a blackish spore print. But practice identifying the species, for safety, and just for the challenge of it.
Mention of several other species were added in the REMARKS with individual species. Gomphidius smithii is an important addition, but the others are all uncommon to rare. Gomphidius loculatus is another rare species with gill structure very interveined to loculate (chambered). The REFERENCES were also added.
Chroogomphus rutilus was changed to Chroogomphus ochraceus. O.K. Miller, who gave a description of Chroogomphus rutilus as a North American as well as European species in 1964, decided in 2003 that the North American material should be included in the concept of Chroogomphus ochraceus (Kauffman) O.K. Miller, leaving Chroogomphus rutilus (Schaeff.) O.K. Mill. as a European species. The dark mahogany cap with variants to light ochraceous apparently represent variation within one species, with both forms being found in Europe (as C. rutilus) and in North America (as C. ochraceus). The description for the revised C. ochraceus is derived from Miller & Miller (2006).
1a Cap flesh and gills white or pale, watery gray when young (Gomphidius)
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1b Cap flesh and gills dull yellow, salmon or winey when young (Chroogomphus)
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2a Lacking a veil when young
................................................................................Gomphidius maculatus
CAP 1-11 cm, glutinous, light cinnamon to reddish brown, darkening from age or handling. STEM white at apex, moist to dry, base with or without yellow ground color underneath coating of dull yellow to purplish fibrils which blacken with age or handling. SPORES in mass smoke-gray to nearly black, 14-22 x 6-9 um. HABITAT conifers, especially larch.
2b Having a veil when young, usually glutinous or gelatinous
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3a Cap pink, rose or red
................................................................................Gomphidius subroseus
| CAP 4-6 cm broad, glutinous, glabrous (without hairs); flesh thick in center but thin at edge. GILLS subdistant (fairly well separated). STEM 3.5-7 cm long, 0.6-1.8 cm in diameter, tapering slightly toward base, white and silky above ring, deep yellow below "ring" left from separation of thin, slimy veil. SPORES in mass black, 15-21 x 4.5-7 um. HABITAT mixed conifers. | Gomphidius subroseus © Steve Trudell |
3b Cap salmon, reddish-brown or winey-gray
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4a Fruiting bodies usually growing several stuck together (some may be aborted) from deep in soil
................................................................................Gomphidius oregonensis
| CAPS 2-15 cm broad, dingy salmon to winey-gray, glutinous; flesh thick, soft and spongy, lacking distinct odor or taste. STEM 6-12 cm long, 1-5 cm in diameter, often partly buried and growing from large, firm, fleshy body, glutinous below annular zone, gluten often darkening; base often deep yellow. SPORES black in mass, 10.5-13 x 4.5-8 um. HABITAT under conifers generally. REMARKS Gomphidius pseudomaculatus is very rare, differing in having no glutinous veil, wider cuticular hyphae, and some of caulocystidia thick-walled. | Gomphidius oregonensis © Michael Beug |
4b Fruiting bodies usually gregarious or single, only caespitose occasionally and then lacking tuberous growth
................................................................................Gomphidius glutinosus
| CAP 2-10 cm broad, glutinous, lacking hairs, smooth, purple-brown or winey-gray or dingy salmon, often developing blackish spots; flesh thick, soft, pallid. STEM 4-10 cm long, 0.7-2 cm in diameter, tapering toward base which is usually yellow; veil leaves a sticky band which is soon black from spores. SPORES in mass smoke-gray to black, 15-21 x 4-7.5 um. REMARKS Gomphidius smithii is another rather common species that will key out here. The size is like G. subroseus but there is less red in the cap and less yellow in the stem. It is also less pigmented in the cap and less yellow in the stem than G. glutinosus. Gomphidius largus occurs at least in Idaho. It is like G. glutinosus except the large size attained (cap up to 21 cm broad), and inflated cellular gill trama (cap trama near gills partly cellular). | Gomphidius glutinosus © Steve Trudell |
| Gomphidius smithii
| Gomphidius smithii © Michael Beug |
5a (1b) Fruiting body entirely yellow-orange
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5b Fruiting body some other color, mostly reddish-brown or winey
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6a Cap dry, downy fibrillose; very common
................................................................................Chroogomphus tomentosus
| CAP 2-6 cm broad, dry and fibrillose, fibrils sometimes with winey tinge; flesh light orange, firm. GILLS light orange or dull yellow-orange when young, becoming clouded from black spores in age. STEM 4-17 cm long, 0.9-1.4 cm in diameter, tapering, dry and slightly fibrillose; hairy veil n breaking leaves fibrils but no ring. SPORES smoke-gray to black in mass, 15-25 x 6-9 um. HABITAT under many different conifers. REMARKS Another species with a somewhat grayer cap but much less common than C. tomentosus and differentiated microscopically is Chroogomphus leptocystis. It has somewhat smaller spores 12-18 x 6-7 um, thinner walls on cystidia, and the cap cuticle hyphae are colorless, not amyloid, and distinctly narrower than the cap trama hyphae, whereas in C. tomentosus the hyphae of the cap cuticle are amyloid, mostly 7-9 microns wide, and the same size as the hyphae of the cap trama. | Chroogomphus tomentosus © Michael Beug |
6b Cap viscid, bald, uncommon
................................................................................Chroogomphus ochraceus (ochraceous orange variation)
| CAP convex, sometimes with a small, pointed umbo, margin incurved at first; ochraceous orange to reddish brown [see reddish brown variation 8a]; smooth, viscid, flesh light salmon to pinkish near the cuticle to light yellowish near stipe base. GILLS decurrent, subdistant, broad"; buff to dull cinnamon. STEM 3.5-10(18)cm x 0.5-2.5cm, narrowing toward base; orange-buff flushed reddish; dry to moist, covered in center part with thin fibrils. SPORE DEPOSIT smoke-gray to black in mass. MICROSCOPIC spores 14-22 x 6.0-7.5 um, long-elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, thick-walled; cystidia conspicuous above basidia, long-cylindric, thin-walled, cap tissue amyloid. HABITAT only under conifers, especially pines. | Chroogomphus ochraceus © Kit Scates Barnhart |
7a (5b) Cap dry, smooth to velvety; stem unusually robust and patchy-fibrillose
................................................................................Chroogomphus pseudovinicolor
| CAP large, 6-12 cm broad, thick, dull orange-red or winey-red, smooth or patchy from fine tomentum; flesh dull orange but becoming wine-colored around larval tunnels. STEM 6-9 cm long, 2-4 cm in diameter, bulging somewhat at ring just below apex; below ring much more fibrillose with fibrils in patches and colored more winey than smoother area above. SPORES in mass green to olive-black, 15-20 x 5-7.5 um. HABITAT usually under Douglas-fir or Ponderosa pine. | Chroogomphus pseudovinicolor © Ben Woo |
7b Cap viscid, drying shiny, surface smooth young but aging fibrillose; stem average to slender in diameter
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8a Cap reddish-brown, often with acute umbo (knob); cystidia thin-walled
................................Chroogomphus ochraceus (reddish brown variation), for description see 6b
8b Cap dark reddish- or orange-brown to wine-colored, almost conical in shape; cystidia thick-walled
................................................................................Chroogomphus vinicolor
| CAP viscid, drying shiny, glabrous (without fibrils) except at margin, bruising white-color; veil of dry, dull yellow fibrils breaks and fibrils slowly become more orange than ground color or stem; cap flesh orange throughout, becoming wine-red when bruised. GILLS more distant than most, pale yellow-orange becoming clouded from spores in age. STEM comparatively slender, orange-buff aging winey. MICROSTRUCTURES spores olivaceous-black to black in mass, 17-23 x 4.5-7.5 um; cystidia, or large, sterile cells on gills, have very thick walls in their mid-portions. HABITAT usually under pines. | Chroogomphus vinicolor © Kit Scates Barnhart |
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