ID help please

[eat-bolete]

Met some polish people in the woods looking for zelenki (Tricholoma equestre), they asked me if I saw any purplish gray Tricholomas as well. Today I found some, please chime in if you know anything about these or have an idea which Tricholoma this is. Taste is very slightly bitter, quite a robust mushroom, grows under pines.

[Matt McDermott]

....went through the same keys you probably did and got stuck at Tricholoma virgatum.   But i don't think most of those look that pointy on the cap.  Although the one in the middle of the pic kind of looks like it.  Sorry i am no help.

[eat-bolete]

Matt, I think it’s a very good proposal. Other species I looked at seem to be all european, virgatum is the only one in NA. Lots of them do have pointy caps, especially at a young age, so it’s probably it. Listed as inedible and toxic though, I don’t know how the people I met consume them then, I hope they don’t confuse them with T. portentosum.

[Dave W]

When I saw the photo, my first impression was also T. virgatum. A few of them appear to feature a central umbo, and the cap color is a kinda silvery-gray with innate radiating fibers (streaks). Bitter taste also fits. There's one spot I know locally where T. virgatum grows... a rocky hilltop with smallish two-or-three needle pines. 

There are several gray-capped Trichs that grow in eastern NA. I *think* I can recognize T. portentosum, especially when there's a slight yellow flush on the gills. The other gray Trichs can be difficult to pin down with high confidence. The ones in this discussion are most likely not T. portentosum (which is a tasty edible). I would recommend not eating T. virgatum. Some species of Trichs have bee associated with very unpleasant reactions. 

Hey e-b, I ran into a couple of Polish immigrants who were picking Suillus luteus (Slippery Jacks). They said they had moved to my locale from Long Island, and at first they were travelling back to Long Island to hunt mushrooms... because they said they had good spots there. They mentioned Leccinum, Suillus, Chanterelles, Armillaria, and various Tricholomas. They also said they had not ever found Boletus edulis on LI. 

[eat-bolete]

Thanks Dave. 

Not all polish mushroom pickers were after these gray ones, some found them and left behind, picking only the green ones.

Also interesting the way the green ones are growing. There is an area, very sandy with pitch pines growing, and abundance of what seems to be exclusively Tricholoma (forgot the name) with dirty tellow/grayish cap with streaks and very pale yellow gills, taste slightly bitter/peppery. everywhere else in this park (and I walked for miles) I collected, again, exclusively, Tricholoma equestre/flavovirens, with a brighter cap and bright yellow gills, pleasant taste. Polish immigrants collect both species for consumption.

Yeah it all makes sense, Long Island is great for Suillus and Leccinum (although this year was a bust), armillaria usually is prolific too. Chanterelles - I have to work on that one, can’t find much. And it’s good to know they never found B. edulis, I just won’t waste my time looking for it here and rather spend it traveling west and search there. The reason is probably lack of norway spruce, or maybe sandy soil.

[Dave W]

The grayish/yellowish Trichs may be T. sejunctum (or T. subsejunctum). There's one that grows in sandy soil under pine; I collected it in the NJ Pine Barrens last year, T. aestuans. T. equestre is also common in the Pine Barrens, but the ones that grow there are difficult to clean on account of all the sand that sticks to the caps. T. equestre is likely a complex of related species. Some forms are quite yellow on the caps, some have brownish tint, and some have greenish tint. 

[eat-bolete]

based on  “Mushrooms of Northeastern NA” they seem to be T. aestuans