Ring (veil)

No ring

The "no ring" characteristic is just as important as the presence of one. A complete absence of a ring, or of any remains of one, on the stem tells you that this mushroom has evolved a different way of protecting its spores. In mycology such mushrooms are said to have a gymnocarpic (open) type of development.

24 species in the database.

What does the absence of a ring mean?

In the "Key to the Fungi of Ukraine," M.Ya. Zerova explains that in ringless mushrooms the spore-bearing surface (gills or tubes) forms completely in the open from the very start of the fruiting body's growth. They don't need a thin membrane (a partial veil) for protection. The stem of such mushrooms runs into the cap without any obstacles, ridges or skirts.

In "Mushrooms Demystified," David Arora lists huge families that are "immune" to rings and make up the lion's share of every forager's basket:

1. Brittlegills (Russula) and milk caps (Lactarius): Not one of the hundreds of species in these two huge genera has a ring. Their stem is always perfectly clean and smooth (or slightly wrinkled).

2. The bolete order (Boletales): Apart from slippery jacks, the vast majority of boletes have no ring. Porcini, birch bolete, orange bolete, lurid bolete, Xerocomus — all of them have a bare, massive stem.

3. Chanterelles (Cantharellus): Chanterelles have a ridged spore-bearing surface that runs smoothly down the stem without any boundaries or membranes.

4. Tricholoma (knights): Most classic autumn knights (yellow knights, gray knights) have no ring either.

A trap for beginners

Roger Phillips warns: the most common beginner's mistake is confusing a mushroom "without a ring" with a mushroom that has lost its ring.

- If you've found a green brittlegill (which genetically has no ring), you see a clean, brittle white stem.

- If you've found an old death cap that has lost its ring to the rain, you also see a "green cap and a white stem."

This leads to fatal mistakes. To tell them apart, always check the base of the stem: the death cap has a sac (the volva) hidden in the soil, which brittlegills never have.

Questions and answers

If a birch bolete's stem has black scales, are they remains of a ring?

No. The black, brown or gray scales on the stems of birch boletes and orange boletes (genus Leccinum) are a special texture of the stem surface itself (ornamentation), not remains of a membrane or veil. They have no ring.

Why does a slippery jack have a ring, but porcini doesn't?

Although both are pored mushrooms, slippery jacks and porcini evolved differently. Slippery jacks adapted to protect their spores with sticky slime and a membrane (a ring), while porcini rely on a thick, dense cap.

Are there poisonous mushrooms without a ring?

Of course! A huge number of poisonous mushrooms have no ring. For example, the deadly poisonous webcaps (they only have a light cobweb that disappears), poisonous knights (the sulphur knight), toxic brittlegills (the sickener) and Entoloma. The absence of a ring is NOT a sign of edibility.

Sources

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