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Plums and Custard

Inedible Inedible
Autumn Autumn
Summer Summer

A beautiful looking mushroom that can grow in large numbers on the forest floor. It is considered to be edible by some but is too bitter to enjoy and is best just admired. It has also been reported that some people can have an adverse reaction to consuming this mushroom.

Mushroom Type
Common Names Plums and Custard (EN), Eirin a Chwstard (CY), Rycerzyk Czerwonozłoty (PL), Bársonyos Fapereszke (HU)
Scientific Name Tricholomopsis rutilans
Season Start Jul
Season End Nov
Average Mushroom height (CM) 10
Average Cap width (CM) 10
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.

Cap

The cap is yellow beneath the purple to red covering of tiny scales. The off colour semi-circle at the top of the image is staining from the spores of an overlapping cap.

Gills

Egg yolk yellow at first, fading with age and fairly crowded.

Stem

Pale yellow but covered in tiny purple scales.

Flesh

Off white to pale yellow.

Habitat

On rotting conifer stumps and roots or fallen conifer trees. Can occasionally be found on broad leaf tree stumps.

Possible Confusion

Looks similar to the closely related Prunes and Custard, Tricholomopsis decora, but it is a rare find in the UK and is paler and more yellow to golden in colour.

Spore Print

White. Ellipsoid.

Taste / Smell

Bitter.

Frequency

Fairly common.

Other Facts

This mushroom is saprobic meaning it lives off rotting organic matter, in this case mainly rotting conifer wood.

COMMENTS

1 comment for Plums and Custard

  1. Rhys Davies says:

    Found some of these at Stafford Castle recently on a rotting stump. Very cool and unique find! Although it’s reported bitter in taste I can’t taste any bitterness within it. It tasted rather soft and plain which is kinda silly to write about, and the smell is actually quite nice/ok! (Note I haven’t actually consumed it nor indorse doing so, just a simple taste test then spit/wash)

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