Laccaria laccata

Scientific classification

Kingdom:        Fungi

Division:          Basidiomycota

Class:   Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Family:            Hydnangiaceae

Genus: Laccaria

Species:           L. laccata

Binomial name           Laccaria laccata

(Scop.) Cooke

Laccaria laccata, commonly known as the deceiver, or waxy laccaria, is a white-spored species of small edible mushroom found throughout North America and Europe. It is a highly variable mushroom (hence “deceiver”), and can look quite washed out, colorless and drab, but when younger it often assumes red, pinkish brown, and orange tones.

The species is often considered by mushroom collectors to be a “mushroom weed” because of its abundance and plain stature.

The deceiver was first described by Tyrolian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1772 as Agaricus laccatus, before being given its current binomial name by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke in 1884.

The specific epithet is derived from the Latin adjective laccatus “varnished” or “shining”. Clitocybe laccata is an old alternative name. Var. pallidifolia, described by Charles Horton Peck, is the commonest variety found in North America.

It is the type species of the cosmopolitan mushroom genus Laccaria; where their relations lie among the gilled mushrooms is unclear, but they are currently classified in the family Hydnangiaceae.

The deceiver gets its common name from its variable appearance. Other names include lacklustre laccaria, and, by the Zapotec people, Beshia ladhi biinii (also the name of other members of Laccaria).

The deceiver is a small mushroom with a cap up to 6 cm (2.5 in) in diameter, convex when young and later flattening or even depressed in the center. It can be various shades of salmon pink, brick-red, or shades of orange or brown when moist or young, and duller and paler when dry.

The fibrous stipe is 5–10 cm (2–4 in) high and 0.6–1 cm (0–0.5 in) wide. The irregular gills are widely spaced and decurrent or adnexed, and of similar color to the cap, though whiten with spores as the mushroom matures. The spore print is white, and the round spiny spores are 7–10 μm in diameter. The flesh is thin and has little taste.

Formerly considered a subspecies by French mycologist René Maire, the close deceiver (Laccaria proxima) is a European relative with a fine scaly cap and found in wetter habitats. Microscopically, its spores are narrower and more oval-shaped.

In California, what was thought to be L. laccata under eucalyptus has turned out to be the Australian species Laccaria fraterna.

Laccaria laccata is found in scattered troops in wooded areas, and on heathland often in poor soil. It is very common in all of the northern temperate zones, but tends to favor cool weather.

L. laccata is mycorrhizal with several types of trees, including members of the Pinaceae (Pines), Fagaceae (Beech), and Betulaceae (Birch). It is found across Europe and North America, south into Mexico and Costa Rica. Laccaria species are mycorrhizal, and thought by some to be pioneer species.

Although small, the deceiver is edible and mild-tasting. It is one of many mushrooms traditionally eaten by the Zapotec people of Oaxaca in Mexico. However, it is important to distinguish it from potentially lethal small brown mushrooms.

This ubiquitous, boring mushroom is my Laccaria nemesis. I'm constantly making Laccaria collections that I'm sure represent a different, more interesting species only to have my hopes dashed once I get out the microscope and Laccaria literature. Once again, Laccaria la-freaking-ccata.

The hallmarks of this balloon-bursting species are its dull orangish brown cap and stem; its thick, (Caucasian) flesh-colored gills, and the white mycelium on the base of the stem. It is usually small to medium-sized, relative to other Laccaria species--but it is occasionally large or very small, creating confusion.

Under the microscope Laccaria laccata features round spores with spines about 1-2 µ long and 1 µ wide at their bases, four-spored basidia, and scattered bundles of upright elements in its pileipellis.

Despite its inclusion in many field guides Laccaria laccata is often fairly difficult to identify without using a microscope, since it is so variable in size and since it associates with both hardwoods and conifers across North America.

However, if you are absolutely, positively certain your Laccaria has white, rather than purplish, basal mycelium (see the discussion on the page for Laccaria bicolor before you decide)--and your collection was made under hardwoods in eastern North America, without any conifers present--you may be able to identify Laccaria laccata without recourse to microscopic analysis.

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods or conifers; growing alone or gregariously (sometimes in loose clusters); common; spring, summer, and fall; widely distributed in North America.

Cap: Usually 1-4.5 cm across, but sometimes larger or smaller; convex, becoming flat and sometimes uplifted; often with a central depression; the margin smooth and even or lined to grooved; bald to finely hairy; orangish brown, fading to buff; color often changing markedly as it dries out.

Gills: Attached to the stem, or beginning to run down it; distant or close; pinkish (Caucasian) flesh color, sometimes developing a faint purplish cast.

Stem: 2-10 cm long; up to 1 cm thick; equal or tapering to base; smooth to finely hairy; occasionally longitudinally grooved; colored like the cap; with white basal mycelium; becoming hollow.

Flesh: Thin, colored like the cap.

Odor and Taste: Taste mild to slightly radishlike; odor similar.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 µ; subglobose to globose; ornamented with spines 1-2 µ long and about 1 µ wide at their bases; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored. Cheilocystidia usually present; filamentous to subclavate; up to about 55 x 7.5 µ. Pileipellis a cutis of elements mostly 3-7.5 µ wide, with scattered bundles of upright elements; terminal cells subclavate to subcapitate.

The official name for the widespread North American variety discussed here is Laccaria laccata var. pallidifolia Peck (1890).