| Identification |
This is a common mushroom easily recognized by it’s dark, shaggy cap and stem.
It is found either singly or in groups under hardwoods, especially oaks, and sometimes under conifers. It obtains its nutrients from the rootlets of trees (mycorrhizal). It appears in the summer and fall, August to October.
The cap is 1½″ to 4¾″ wide, fleshy, and dry. When young it is whitish-gray and convex with a grayish, woolly universal veil. As it ages it becomes darker gray to blackish and broadly convex. It. The upper surface is covered with large, thick, wart-like, grayish-brown to black scales. Remnants of the universal veil usually hang from the margin, giving the cap a shaggy appearance. When bruised, the flesh turns slowly reddish, then dark brownish to black.
The are no gills. There is a sponge-like layer of tubes on the underside of the cap. The tube layer peals easily and cleanly away from the cap. The mouths of the tubes (pores) tubes are whitish or gray when young, becoming nearly black with age. When bruised, they turn at first reddish, then dark brownish to black in about an hour.
The stalk is firm, dry, solid, 1½″ to 4¾″ tall, and ⅜″ to 1″ thick. The base of the stalk is no thicker or only slightly thicker. The middle and lower parts of the stalk are covered with large, thick, wart-like, grayish-brown to black scales or shaggy remnants of the universal veil.
The spores are black to blackish-brown. |
