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Crimped Gill

Inedible

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Crimped Gill, Plicaturopsis crispa Photo © Attila Fodi

A small size mushroom, growing in overlapping clusters on fallen branches or decaying trunks of hardwoods. Once you have checked its underneath, it is unmistakable.

Mushroom Type
Common Names	Crimped Gill (EN), Tagell Grech (CY), Fałdówka Kędzierzawa (PL), Bükk-Eresgomba (HU)
Scientific Name	Plicaturopsis crispa
Synonyms	Plicatura crispa, Plicatura faginea, Trogia faginea, Merulius fagineus
Season Start	All Year
Season End	All Year
Average Mushroom height (CM)
Average Cap width (CM)	1-2.5

Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.

Fruiting Body

1-2.5 cm wide, somewhat fan shaped (spathulate) or semi-circular. Attached to the substrate in one point.
Its upper surface is finely velvety, smooth with white to ochre, yellow brown concentric zones. Its margin is lobed, undulating, white.

Gills

It has white and wrinkled/crimped pseudo-gills.

Flesh

Thin, papery, white

Habitat

Grows on fallen branches or decaying trunks of hardwoods, causing white-rot. Usually on small branches of Hazel in the UK, but often found on Alder, Beech and Birch, in open woodlands, parklands and cemeteries.

Possible Confusion

Splitgill (Schizophyllum commune), pictured, has white, hairy skin, also has pseudo-gills, but they are longitudinally split.

Spore Print

Spore print is white. Spores are smooth; thin walled; cylindrical, curved and sausage shaped.

Taste / Smell

Inedible, but non-toxic.

Frequency

Uncommon and rarely reported.

Other Facts

Crimped gill is often colonized by other organisms. If found with red marks on the wrinkled lower surface, it is a clear sign of being colonized by Serratia marcescens, a yeast-like Gram-positive bacteria.

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