Pleurotus djamor

A tropical oyster mushroom growing on decaying wood or straw, with a fan-shaped, semicircular pileus 5 to 15 cm in diameter, white to pink depending on the variety (the pink variety being widely cultivated), white to pinkish lamellae, with a rudimentary, almost absent stipe attaching it to the substrate, farinaceous odour, and slightly bitter taste.

Hyphal system dimitic; context with hyaline, thick-walled, aseptate skeletal hyphae 2.5 to 5 µm wide, and hyaline, thin-walled generative hyphae 3.5 to 8 µm wide, septate with conspicuous clamp connections.

Cheilocystidia subcylindrical to clavate, 15 to 34 µm long and 6 to 11 µm wide.

Pleurocystidia absent.

Basidia cylindrical-clavate, 18 to 25 µm long, 5 to 6 µm wide, clamped at the base, 4-spored.

Spores cylindrical-ellipsoidal, smooth, hyaline, thin-walled, 7.5 to 9.5 µm long, 3.5 to 4.5 µm wide, with a typically eccentric apiculus at one end, faint granular content inside, turning golden yellow in Melzer's reagent (inamyloid).

Characterized by distinct cheilocystidia, which are absent in most other Pleurotus species.

Herbarium material available: JTP1961/23 and JTP2036/24.