Tricholoma vaccinum    (Schaeff.:Fr.) P. Kumm. 

common name(s) : Scaly Knight, Brindle Tricholoma 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Agaricomycetidae/Agaricales/Tricholomataceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Agaricomycetideae/Tricholomatales/Tricholomataceae/Tricholomatoideae/Tricholomateae  

edibility : inedible

potential confusions with  Tricholoma vaccinum toxicity of Tricholoma vaccinum genus Tricholoma  

The cap is red-brown, tawny-brown to brown ochre, conical then expanded, with a central umbo; its margin is inrolled a long time, hairy, fluffy-woolly, overhanging. The cap surface is covered with small upturned, fluffy and concentric scales, denser towards the centre, clearly marked at the margin, dry, not viscid nor sticky.

The stem is whitish, with red-brown fibrils from the base up giving it a paler brown shade than the cap, cylindrical and hollow, fragile, without ring, possibly with some cortina-like remnants on the stem.

The flesh is white, rosy in stem base, turning pink when exposed to air, especially in stem and gills; its taste is bitter; the odour is earthy or mealy when cut; its texture is fibrous.

The gills are white to cream, then stained with rust with age, emarginate to adnate, rather distant (nb of gills per 90° ~ 26 ). The spore print is white. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in coniferous woods, forest edges and rather in the mountains, more rarely in deciduous woods, on a rather calcareous soil, with spruce, pine.

The fruiting period takes place from July to December.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 6 cm (between 2 and 10 cm)
  height of stem approximately 7 cm (between 3 and 10 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 14 mm (between 8 and 30 mm)

Distinctive features : red-brown cap with upturned scales and woolly margin; white gills and flesh, turning rusty brown with age; stem white at apex; white flesh with bitter taste and mealy odour, turning pink in the stem; with conifers

Tricholoma vaccinum is rare and localised in the forest of Rambouillet, and is occasional, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Tricholoma vaccinum in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Tricholoma vaccinum in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18