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Hymenophore

Gilled

Gills — mushrooms with the trait «Gills»

When you look under the cap and see a pattern of thin blades radiating from the stem to the edge, you're looking at a gilled hymenophore. It's the most evolutionarily advanced spore-bearing surface, and it demands the greatest care and thoroughness from a forager when identifying a mushroom.

24 species in the database.

Anatomy and the evolutionary success of gills

A gilled hymenophore (lamellate) is a structure made of radial outgrowths of tissue (gills) hanging from the underside of the cap. In her "Handbook of the Fungi of Ukraine", M.Ya. Zerova explains that gills make it possible to fit a gigantic amount of hymenium into a very small area. Thanks to the spacing between the blades, spores fall out freely under gravity and are caught by air currents.

In "Mushrooms Demystified", David Arora stresses that the presence of gills is only the first step in identification. Far more important is how these gills are attached to the stem:

- Free: The gills don't touch the stem at all. This is a critical marker of the amanitas (Amanita), Agaricus mushrooms (Agaricus) and parasols (Macrolepiota).

- Attached (Adnate / Adnexed): The gills touch the stem or are attached to it along their full width (as in brittlegills and webcaps).

- Decurrent: The gills run smoothly down the stem (typical of oyster mushrooms and milk caps).

In his guide "Mushrooms", Roger Phillips insists on carefully checking the color of the gills. In a mature mushroom, the color of the gills most often matches the color of its spore print. White gills are typical of amanitas, pinkish-brown of Agaricus mushrooms, rusty brown of dangerous webcaps. The way gill color changes with age is one of the most reliable clues for a forager.

For a mushroom picker, understanding gilled anatomy is a matter of life and death. It's the order Agaricales, which has gills, that includes all the deadly poisonous mushrooms containing amatoxins (death cap, destroying angel, funeral bell). No other type of hymenophore hides so many dangers.

Questions and answers

Why are there so many gilled mushrooms in the forest?
It's the result of evolutionary success. The gilled structure is the most efficient way known in nature to maximize the spore-bearing area. This lets gilled mushrooms dominate most ecosystems.
Are all gilled mushrooms poisonous?
No, there are hundreds of excellent edible species among them (Agaricus mushrooms, brittlegills, chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, honey fungus). However, the vast majority of Europe's deadly poisonous mushrooms have a gilled hymenophore. So treat them with the utmost caution.
What does "free gills" mean and why does it matter?
Free gills don't join the stem, leaving a narrow groove between the blades and the stem. This feature, combined with white gills and the presence of a volva, is the classic portrait of the deadly poisonous death cap.
How do you tell gills from ridges (as in chanterelles)?
True gills are separate structures that you can easily detach from the cap flesh with a finger or a knife. Ridges (as in the chanterelle) are just wrinkles in the flesh itself that can't be separated as a distinct layer.

Sources

  1. 1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
  2. 2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
  3. 3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
  4. 4.Index Fungorum