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.

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.

Naming

The name Pluteus was established in 1837¹ by the founding mycologist Elias Magnus Fries at a time when agaric mushrooms were first being assigned to different genera. The Latin word " " has various meanings related to military protective structures and its signification here may be that of a shield (the shape of the cap).

Remarks on particular species

Some of these mushrooms are edible including P. petasatus and P. cervinus, though most people rate their taste and consistency as average at best. Pluteus cervinus is the best known species in Europe and North America. Several species of this genus bruise blue and contain psilocybin including Pluteus brunneidiscus, Pluteus salicinus, Pluteus cyanopus, Pluteus glaucus, Pluteus nigroviridis, Pluteus phaeocyanopus, Pluteus americanus and Pluteus villosus. Fungi of this genus have been recorded as food of the pleasing fungus beetles Dacne quadrimaculata and the (possibly conspecific) Tritoma atriventris and T.humeralis; while the former eats it only occasionally and probably just as adults, for the Tritoma a diet of Pluteus is apparently also a suitable larval food, and the species in question has been tentatively identified as the deer mushroom P.cervinus.

See also

List of Pluteus species

References

Further reading

M. Kuo "The Genus Pluteus" (on Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto)

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