Luminescent Panellus

not listed

NNR - Unranked

not listed

Luminescent Panellus is a common, small, bioluminescent, gilled mushroom. It occurs in Europe, Asia, Western Australia, North America, and Central America. In the United States it occurs east of the Great Plains and west of the Rocky Mountains. It is found usually in clusters or in tightly overlapping tiers on the sides or ends of logs, fallen branches, and stumps. Occasionally it is found on the trunk of a living tree. It grows on hardwoods, especially oak, birch, maple, hickory, pecan, chestnut, and ash, but it has also been reported on eastern white pine and loblolly pine. It obtains its nutrients from decaying wood (saprobic). It causes white rot in wood. New fruiting bodies are formed from September through November, sometimes also in the spring, but they are persistent and can be seen year-round.

When it first appears, the cap is convex and tan to pale yellowish-brown. The margins are rolled inward and have fragments of tissue, shredded remnants of the partial veil, hanging from them. The upper surface is dry and is covered with velvety or woolly hairs. As it ages the cap flattens and spreads out from the growing surface parallel to the ground. Mature caps are kidney-shaped, fan-shaped, or semicircular, and are 3⁄16″ to 1¼″ (0.5 to 3.0 cm) in diameter. They are flat below but slightly convex above, being thicker in the middle (plano-convex). The upper surface is often cracked. If exposed to direct sunlight the color changes to cinnamon brown. Caps in diffuse light remain pale.

The gills are yellowish-brown, closely spaced, narrow, and often forked. When young, they are broadly attached and may slightly run down the stalk. As the mushroom ages they pull away from the stalk. Between the main gills there are short veins of varying lengths gills that attach to the margin but do not extend all the way to the stalk. There are also numerous cross-veins that connect adjacent gills together.

Occasionally, there is no stalk. When present, the stalk is 3⁄16″ to ¾″ (5 to 20 mm) long, ⅛″ to 5⁄16″ (3 to 8 mm) thick. It is attached off-center near or at the side of the cap. It is the same color as the cap or somewhat paler.

The flesh is thin, tough, and whitish, pale yellowish, or pale brownish. Its bitter taste and tough texture make it inedible.

The spore print is white.

Mostly hardwoods, especially oak, birch, maple, hickory, pecan, chestnut, and ash; sometimes also eastern white pine and loblolly pine.

Mostly September through November, sometimes also in spring

This mushroom has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a styptic, to stop bleeding. This is the source of the specific epithet stipticus. It was also used as a “violent purgative”.

Sources

4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Common

Genus
Since it was first described in 1783 as Agaracus stypticus, this mushroom has been moved several times to different genera. In 1879 it was moved to the genus Panellus, where it remains today.

Family
This mushroom was former placed in the family Tricholomataceae. That was a wastebasket family containing unrelated species that could not be placed in other families. A recent molecular phylogenetic study (Monclavo, et al., 2002) showed that the genus Panellus was closely related to the genus Mycena, and Panellus was moved to the family Mycenaceae.

Bioluminescent species!

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Location: Fairview Twp., Cass County

Location: Hennepin County

Bioluminescent species!