''Pluteus leoninus'', commonly known as lion shield, can occasionally be found growing on dead wood in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and
North Africa
North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
. The underside of the cap is typical of the genus ''
Pluteus
''Pluteus'' is a large genus of fungi with over 300 species. They are wood rotting saprobes with pink spore prints and gills that are free from the stem.
The Latin word ''Pluteus'' means ''shed or penthouse''.
Characteristics of the genus ...
'' — the gills are pale, soon becoming pink when the spores ripen. But the upper surface is a bright tawny or olivaceous yellow. The species name ''leoninus'' (meaning
leonine) refers to this cap colour.
Description
This description is combined from several references.
[
*The golden to olive-yellow convex cap is 3–7 cm in diameter, is ]hygrophanous The adjective hygrophanous refers to the color change of mushroom tissue (especially the pileus surface) as it loses or absorbs water, which causes the pileipellis
The pileipellis is the uppermost layer of hyphae in the pileus of a fungal fr ...
, and usually has a grooved edge. The darker central disc has a slight velvety tomentum.
*The gills are yellowish at first, then salmon pink (the colour of the spore powder).
*The stipe is up to about 7 cm, often striate, being white to cream, and often darker near the base.
*The mushroom grows on stumps and wood debris of broad-leaved trees and sometimes of conifers.
*At the microscopic level, the filamentous cap cuticle is a trichoderm. The gills have scanty bladder-shaped pleurocystidia, and abundant fusiform
Fusiform (from Latin ''fusus'' ‘spindle’) means having a spindle (textiles), spindle-like shape that is wide in the middle and tapers at both ends. It is similar to the lemon (geometry), lemon-shape, but often implies a focal broadening of a ...
cheilocystidia. The spores are smooth, almost globular, approximately 7×6 μm.
Many authorities consider ''Pluteus fayodii'' to be a synonym of ''P. leoninus'',[ but according to ]Species Fungorum
''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (Binomial nomenclature, scientific names) in the fungus Kingdom (biology), kingdom. As of 2015, the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partn ...
, they are distinct.[
]
Edibility
According to some sources,[ it is edible but has little to no taste.
]
See also
* List of ''Pluteus'' species
References
Edible fungi
leoninus
Fungi of Europe
Fungi of Africa
Fungi described in 1871
Fungus species
{{Agaricales-stub