Suillus pungens
Suillus pungens is a species of fungus in the genus Suillus. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin pungen, and refers to the pungent aroma of the fruit bodies. The mushroom is considered edible, but not highly regarded. It is limited in distribution to California.
About Suillus pungens in brief
Suillus pungens is a species of fungus in the genus Suillus. The fruit bodies of the fungus have slimy convex caps up to14 cm wide. The mushroom is considered edible, but not highly regarded. The fungus is limited in distribution to California. It fruits almost exclusively with Monterey and bishop pine, two trees with small and scattered natural ranges concentrated in the West Coast of the United States. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin pungen, and refers to the pungent aroma of the fruit bodies. The cap color is highly variable in this species. When young it is dirty-white to olive with pale olive splotches. Maturing caps retain the color when young, or become tawny to orange-yellow to reddish-brown. The presence of milky droplets on the pore surface of young individuals, especially in humid environments, is a characteristic feature of this. species. S. pungens was first described scientifically by American mycologists Harry D. Thiers and Alexander H. Smith in their 1964 monograph on North American Suillus species. A 1996 molecular analysis of 38 different Suillus Species used the sequences of their internal transcribed spacers to infer phylogenetic relationships and clarify the taxonomy of the genus.
The species produces more fruit bodies than other competing ectomycorrhizal fungi in the same location, but it is not a dominant root colonizer, and occupies only a small percentage of ectomyCorrhizAL root tips. The mushrooms can be found in California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Oregon and Arizona. It is not known if the species is found in Europe or South America. It has also been referred to as the “slippery jack” or the “pungent suillus” by some people who have grown up with it as a food source. It can grow up to 7 cm long, and 2 cm thick, and has a dotted stem up to7 cm long, and a diameter of 1.5 cm. The hymenium on the underside of the cap is the spore-bearing tissue consisting of minute vertically arranged tubes that appear as a surface of angular, yellowish pores. As young specimens of the species mature, the surface changes to brown to yellow, becoming nearly decurrent or so decurrent with age. The flesh of the mushroom is 1–2cm thick and unchanging in young fruit bodies, frequently changing to yellow when dried.
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This page is based on the article Suillus pungens published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
