King oyster mushroom

Quick facts

Scientific name

Pleurotus eryngii (DC.) Quél. (1872)

Family

Pleurotaceae

Edibility

Edible

Season

Oct–Dec

Usual altitude

283–1,444 m

Dangerous look-alike

Jack-o'-lantern · Omphalotus olearius

IUCN Red List

Not evaluated (NE)

How to recognise it

Cap

Greyish-brown to ochre, 3–12 cm, dry, flat or slightly funnelled

Gills, pores or pits

Gills cream, crowded, running distinctly down the stem

Stem

Short, solid, white, often off-centre; no ring

Flesh when cut

White, thick, firm and slightly springy

Spore print

White

Where it grows

It grows neither in woodland nor on wood: it lives off the dead roots of field eryngo (Eryngium campestre), in dry pasture, fallow and cereal steppe. That is why it turns up in open country, where nobody is looking for mushrooms. It is common in Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, southern Castilla y León, Murcia and Andalusia. The main flush runs October to December after the autumn rains, with a shorter second one in spring.

Confused with

• Jack-o'-lanternOmphalotus oleariusdangerous

  Cap

  Bright orange, 5–15 cm, convex then funnelled, smooth

  Gills, pores or pits

  True gills, thin, crowded, strongly decurrent, orange

  Stem

  Long, often off-centre, orange, darker towards the base

  Flesh when cut

  Orange right through to the centre, fibrous and firm

  Spore print

  White to cream

  Where and when

  Stumps and roots, even buried ones, of olive and other broadleaves; autumn

  How to tell them apart: Orange all over, gills included, with flesh orange to the centre; the king oyster is brown or ochre, with cream gills and white flesh.

  Deep orange throughout, flesh included, with sharp, strongly decurrent gills. It comes from the stumps and roots of olive, holm oak or cork oak, sometimes buried, so it can seem to rise from the soil: where it grows will not rule it out, its colour will. Toxic, causing violent vomiting.

• Fool's funnelClitocybe rivulosadangerous

  Cap

  Whitish, 2–5 cm, frosted, cracking into rings with age

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills whitish, crowded, adnate to decurrent

  Stem

  Short and thin, whitish, fibrous; no ring

  Flesh when cut

  Whitish and thin

  Spore print

  White

  Where and when

  Pasture, lawns and verges, in rings; summer to autumn

  How to tell them apart: Small, whitish and frosted, with thin flesh; the king oyster has a brown or ochre cap and thick, firm flesh.

  Smaller and whitish, its cap covered in a white frosting that cracks into rings with age, with crowded, white, decurrent gills. It comes up in rings on the grass of the same pastures, so a thistle nearby confirms nothing: the king oyster has a brown or ochre cap and thick, firm flesh. It contains muscarine and brings on sweating, salivation and tears within a quarter of an hour of eating it.

• Oyster mushroomPleurotus ostreatus

  Cap

  Shell- or oyster-shaped, 5–15 cm, grey to brown, smooth

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills whitish to cream, crowded, strongly decurrent

  Stem

  Very short and lateral, or almost absent

  Flesh when cut

  White, firm and slightly tough

  Spore print

  White to pale lilac-grey

  Where and when

  Trunks of beech, poplar or willow; autumn and winter

  How to tell them apart: It grows in tiers on wood, with a lateral stem or barely any; the king oyster comes out of the ground, from eryngo roots.

  Edible and a close relative, but it grows in tiers on the trunks of poplar, beech or willow, shell-shaped and with barely any stem. Confusing the two costs nothing.

When it has been found

Finds recorded in Spain, by month: 651 in all, from GBIF. They show when it fruits, and also when people go looking.

Where it has been found

Each square is an area of about 20 km with recorded finds; the darker, the more finds. It does not pinpoint patches: for where it is coming up now, see the forecast map.

Sources

• GBIF: name, authorship and family
• GBIF: finds recorded in Spain
• IUCN Red List: threat category

The usual altitude and the trees come from our own fit of the model to those finds and to the Spanish Forest Map (Mapa Forestal de España).