The North American ringless honey mushroom: dense clusters of honey-brown, dry, finely scaly caps on fused stems with no ring, growing from stumps, roots or buried wood, especially of oaks. It was long called Armillaria tabescens, but the North American populations were separated in 2021 from the Eurasian D. tabescens. It causes Armillaria root disease on stressed trees, including orchard trees such as lychee and peach.
Edible when young and thoroughly cooked; undercooked specimens can cause serious stomach upset, and some people react even to cooked ones, so try a small amount first. Avoid treated lawns. Look-alikes: jack-o'-lantern (Omphalotus illudens), also ringless, clustered on oak and pale-spored, but orange with a smooth cap (severe GI poisoning); deadly galerina (Galerina marginata), small, ringed, brown-spored, with amatoxins; Gymnopilus junonius, orange, bitter, ringed, orange-brown-spored.
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Habitat
Large clusters on stumps, roots and buried wood, especially oak, often appearing to come out of the ground; common in urban yards. Fruits late summer to fall (September to November in Missouri). A root-rot pathogen, recorded on orchard trees such as lychee and peach.
Distribution
United States and Mexico (Antonín et al. 2021), including Missouri and Texas; the Eurasian D. tabescens is considered unlikely to occur in North America under current concepts.
Characteristics
Cap: about 2.5-10 cm, convex becoming flat with an uplifted margin; dry, not sticky; yellow-brown to honey-brown with small reddish-brown cottony scales. Gills: whitish, bruising pinkish to brownish, somewhat spaced. Stem: 5-20 cm long, 0.6-1.3 cm thick, tapering toward the base, off-white to brownish, fibrous; no ring; stems fused at the base in clusters. Spore print: white.
