Tricholoma albobrunneum?

[Leif]

This one keys out to T. albobrunneum:

The Association of British Fungus Groups • View topic - Tricholoma ?

Is anyone familiar with that species?

[fairplay]

Hi Leif,

You're way ahead of me on this, so all I can say is 'Best of British'.
Fingers crossed,

Neil.

[Leif]

Thanks Neil.

I should mention that Kew did not examine the dried specimens. One point I did not make clear is that most specimens had a clearly defined white zone at the stem apex, as seen in the photo.

[mollisia]

Hello,

first I have to say, that the brown Tricholomas associated with pine are horrible. And that I have not too much experience with them, though I have seen "all" of them.
In question is T. pesundatum, T. stans, T. striatum, T. batschii and T. robustum, according the understandment of that group that I have. T. albobrunneum is in my understandness a collective name for at least T. stans and T. striatum. I know, the scandinaviens continue to use the name T. albobrunneum also in the future issue of Tricholoma in the series "Fungi of Northern Europe". I have seen the distribution maps already . Nevertheless, I think I can distinguish stans and striatum.
And there are a southern species, T. tridentinum, which is unknown to me, and Tricholoma japponicum (= T. roseoacerbum ss. auct. scand.), which has a similar look.
We can drop T. batschii, which has a pseudo-ring zone. We can drop T. robustum, which has different colours, is reddening and is very massive species. We can also rule out T. japponicum on account of the more pinkish hue in the colours and the (usually) +/- ribbed cap margin. We can also scratch T. tridentinum for its brighter colours and the southern distribution. I would rule out T. stans, which is a small species with a stipe usually lomnger then the cap, a cap diameter rarely exceeding 6-8 cm, and redbrown staining when bruised.
That leaves us T. striatum and T. pessundatum. In your case I can make no decision. The cap colour seems more likely for T. pessundatum, but the cap structure is more towards T. striatum. So all in all I would opt for T. striatum. Very probably you use the name albobrunneum for what I call striatum.

best regards,
Andreas

[Leif]

Hello Andreas. Thanks for the information. Yes, I think what you call T. striatum is what I call T. albobrunneum. It looks as if my determination is reasonable given the evidence. There are some aspects described in Funga Nordica which rule out T. pessundatum: T. pessundatum does not have a ribbed cap margin, does not have a distinct white zone at the stem apex, does not have brown spots on the gills, and has a glabrous cap surface (not felty/fibrous). However, this does assume that the FN description is accurate (and that my specimens were typical of the species in question).

As you say, this group is not easy.Thanks again. Leif