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Telephora brush – a rather rare mushroom with a capped fruiting body. Belongs to the class Agaricomycetes, the Telephoraceae family, the Telephora genus. The Latin name is Thelephora penicillata.
What does brush telephora look like?
Thelephora penicillata has an attractive appearance. The fruit body is a bunch of dark fluffy brushes, lighter at the tips. Rosettes growing on stumps look more attractive than those growing on the ground. The latter look rumpled and trampled, although no one touches them. The color of the rosettes is violet-brown, violet, reddish-brown at the base, turning brownish towards the branched tips. The highly branched tips of the rosettes end in sharp spikes that are white, creamy, or cream-colored.
The size of the telephora rosettes reaches 4-15 cm in width, the length of the spikes is 2-7 cm.
The flesh of the mushroom is brown, fibrous and soft.
Spores are warty, elliptical in shape, ranging in size from 7-10 x 5-7 microns. The spore powder is purple-brown.
Is the mushroom edible or not?
Telephora is not suitable for human consumption. Its flesh is thin and tasteless, with the smell of dampness, earth and anchovy. Of no gastronomic interest. Toxicity has not been confirmed.
Where and how to grow
In Our Country, Telephora brush is found in the middle lane (in the Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod regions). Distributed on the European mainland, in Ireland, Great Britain, and also in North America.
It grows on the remains of plants (fallen branches, leaves, stumps), rotten trees, soil, forest litter. Settles in moist coniferous, mixed and broad-leaved forests next to alder, birch, aspen, oak, spruce, linden.
Telephora brush likes acidic soils, sometimes found in areas covered with moss.
The fruiting season is from July to November.
Twins and their differences
The brush telephora bears a resemblance to Thelephora terrestris (Terrestrial Telephora). The latter has a darker color, loves sandy dry soils, often grows next to pines and other conifers, less often with broad-leaved species. Sometimes you can see next to eucalyptus trees. Found in cutting areas and forest nurseries.
The fruit body of Thelephora terrestris mushroom has rosette-shaped, fan-shaped or shell-shaped caps that grow together radially or in rows. They form large irregularly shaped formations. Their diameter is about 6 cm, when fused, it can reach up to 12 cm. They can be open-bent. Their base is narrowed, the hat rises slightly from it. They have a soft structure, are fibrous, scaly, furrowed or pubescent. At first, their edges are smooth, with time they become carved, with furrows. The color changes from the center to the edges – from red-brown to dark brown, along the edges – grayish or whitish. On the underside of the cap is a hymenium, often warty, sometimes radially ribbed or smooth, its color is chocolate brown or amber red. The flesh of the cap has the same color as the hymenium, it is fibrous, about 3 mm thick. The smell of pulp is earthy.
Terrestrial telephora is not eaten.
Conclusion
It is believed that brush telephora is a saprophyte-destructor, that is, an organism that processes the dead remains of animals and plants and turns them into the simplest organic and inorganic compounds, without leaving excrement. Mycologists do not yet have a consensus on whether Thelephora penicillata is a saprophyte or just forms mycorrhiza (fungal root) with trees.