Rooting shank

Description:

The cap is pale grey-brown to mid brown. It is 4 to 10 cm across and convex or bell-shaped, becoming flatter and umbonate. The cap is sticky when moist, drying silky with radial wrinkles. The gills are adnate with a slight decurrent tooth and are pale cream, with browner edges when fully mature. The stem of Xerula radicata is 8 to 20 cm long and 0.5 to 1 cm in diameter. The base usually rooting in buried wood and is finely grooved. It is white at the apex and browner near the base.

Habitat:

The Rooting shank is a fairly common woodland mushroom throughout most parts of mainland Europe and North America. Xerula radicata is a saprobic fungus, rooting on rotten wood, often buried deep beneath leaf litter.

Notes:

Spotted on dead leaves and twigs nearby an European beech in rural area of Deventer, Holland.