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Xeromphalin bell-shaped (Xeromphalina campanella) or omphalina bell-shaped is a fungus that belongs to the numerous genus Xeromphalin, the family Mycenaceae. It has a hymenophore with rudimentary plates.
What do xeromphalins bell-shaped look like?
This mushroom is very small. The size of its cap is similar to 1-2 kopeck coins, and does not exceed 2 cm in diameter. The color of xeromphaline is bell-shaped orange or yellowish-brown.
The hat has a rounded convex shape with a characteristic depression in the center, translucent along the edges. In older specimens, it can completely straighten out or even wrap up. Rare plates descend along the stem, they are colored yellowish-orange or cream. If you look closely, you can see the transverse veins connecting the plates to each other. The surface of the cap is smooth, shiny, radially striped due to the plates translucent from below, in the center its color is more saturated – dark brown, along the edges – lighter.
A very thin fibrous stem is 0,1-0,2 cm thick and 1 to 3 cm high. It is yellow in the upper part, and orange-brown in the lower part with fine white pubescence along its entire length. The stem has a cylindrical shape, slightly widened at the top, with a noticeable thickening at the base. The flesh of the mushroom is thin, reddish-yellow, without a pronounced odor.
Where do xeromphalins bell-shaped grow?
They grow on decaying wood, most often pine or spruce. In the forest, they are found in numerous colonies. These mushrooms are characteristic of a natural zone with a temperate continental climate, where the average air temperature in July does not exceed 18 ° C, and winters are severe and cold. Coniferous forests of these latitudes are called taiga. Bright orange hats are easy to spot on stumps in May. The fruiting season lasts from late spring to the end of autumn.
Is it possible to eat xeromphalins bell-shaped
Nothing is known about the edibility of the mushroom. Research in the laboratory was not carried out, and experts do not advise tasting unfamiliar representatives of the mushroom kingdom, very similar to deadly poisonous galerins. Due to its small size, the mushroom cannot be of nutritional value.
How to distinguish xeromphalins bell-shaped
The genus Xeromphalin includes 30 species, of which only three are found in Western Siberia – K. bell-shaped, K. stem-shaped and K. Cornu. It is quite difficult to distinguish these fungi, the most reliable way is microscopic examination.
Xeromphalin bell-shaped differs from the other two representatives of its genus growing in Our Country by its earlier and longer fruiting. The other two species appear only in the middle of summer. These mushrooms also have no nutritional value due to their small size, they are inedible.
An inexperienced mushroom picker may confuse xeromphalin bell-shaped with a deadly-poisonous bordered galerina. However, the latter is slightly larger in size, its cap does not have a depression in the middle and transparency, due to which the lamellar hymenophore is well translucent.
Conclusion
Xeromphalin campanulate grows in coniferous forests from May to November. Most often, the mushroom can be found in the spring, the first wave of fruiting is the most abundant. This species has no nutritional value due to its tiny size, and nothing is known about its toxicity.
