Oudemansiella radicata (Relhan. :Fr.) Singer Ann. Mycol. 34: 333 (1936)

Image © Clive Shirley Reproduced by permission Common Name: Rooting Shank

The long slender stem, broad white gills, which are quite widely separated, and glutinous cap (when wet) characterise this fungus. The gills produce copious quantities of white spores. The long 'root' in the ground is distinctive. (Oudemans...........; radix [L.] - root.)

• Pileus/cap

  2-8cm. Grey-brown, ochre-brown to olive-brown. Broadly convex, becoming plane, sometimes with slight umbo. Margin slightly incurved, striate. Slimy when wet, shiny and smooth or radially wrinkled.

• Lamellae/gills

  White. Adnate with short decurrent tooth. Deep and thick. Rather distant.

• Stipe/stem

  5-25cm. Long, slender, cylindrical, narrower at top, becoming slightly broader at base before narrowing into a long tap "root". White at top becoming brown or grey towards base. Smooth, fibrillose or striate. Snaps easily.

• Spores

  Spore print white.

• Habitat

  Solitary or in small groups in native forests, sometimes in pasture land. Usually rooting in wood.

• References

  Bougher, N & Syme, K. Fungi of Southern Australia, pp 220-221

  Fuhrer, B. Field Companion to Australian Fungi p. 67

Distribution map

Last modified on 28 May 2001

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