Marasmius rotula is a common species of agaric fungus in the family Marasmiaceae. It is commonly known variously as the pinwheel mushroom, the little wheel, the collared parachute, or the horse hair fungus. It has a convex shape with a conspicuous scallop-like outline in thecenter.
About Marasmius rotula in brief
Marasmius rotula is a common species of agaric fungus in the family Marasmiaceae. It is commonly known variously as the pinwheel mushroom, the little wheel, the collared parachute, or the horse hair fungus. M. rotula mushrooms are not generally considered edible. They produce a unique peroxidase enzyme that is attracting research interest for possible use in bioengineering applications. The species was first described by Italian mycologist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli as Agaricus rotula in 1772. In 1821 Elias Magnus Fries redescribed the mushroom in Systema Mycologicum, and later transferred it to Marasmius in his 1838 Epicrisis Systematis mycologici. In 1946 Alexander H. Smith and Rolf Singer proposed to conserve the name Marasmian over Micromphale; the latter had nomenclatorial priority as it was published first. The generic name was later conserved at the 1954 Paris Congress on Botanical Nomenclature. The fruit bodies, or mushrooms, of M. rotula are characterized by their whitish, thin, and membranous caps up to 2 cm wide that are sunken in the center, and pleated with scalloped margins.
On the underside of the caps are widely spaced white gills that are attached to a collar encircling the stem. The mushrooms grow in groups or clusters on decaying wood such as fallen twigs and sticks, moss-covered logs, and stumps. It has a convex shape with a conspicuous scallop-like outline in thecenter, with an outline in an outline of furrows and furrows in the gills, like the spokes of a specific epithet, rota, the Latin word for rota. Several varieties of M rotula have been described, including var. fuscus in 1869 for its brown cap and var. microcephalus from Italy, with caps half the normal size. This latter taxon is now treated as Marasmsius bulliardii. It’s now understood that fruit body morphology is variable and dependent upon environmental conditions. The name is shared with other Marasmus species, including androsaceus and M crinis-equi-crinis, and is suggestive of the dimple-stool fungus, which has a conspicuous furrows shape, and a conspicuous outline in a collar to which gills are attached. The cap cuticle is ornamented with numerous warts.
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This page is based on the article Marasmius rotula published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
