images/Pleurotus_giganteus/Lentinus_giganteus_Zhu_Yang.jpg
Diagnostic characters
Medium to very large agaric, growing on the ground or wood, with a white spore print. Pileus pale, brown or black, not viscid. Lamellae decurrent. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants a ring zone or absent. Spores hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama interwoven, radiate. Context dimitic with skeletal hyphae. Pileipellis a cutis or a trichoderm. Clamp connections present.
Similar genera
Pleurotus giganteus can be massive, initially with a thin floccose partial veil. It is similar to Panus, especially in the radiate lamellar trama and dimitic pileal trama, differing by the presence of a partial veil, the rooting stipe base, ellipsoid spores and capitate cystidia. It is also reminiscent of a large species of Cortinarius with a rooting stipe base, but it has a white spore print, and smooth, hyaline spores. It differs from other species of Pleurotus by the radiate lamellar trama.
Australian species
Pleurotus giganteus (= Lentinus, Panus) is keyed out separately to other species of Pleurotus because it has radiate lamellar trama.
Citation of species
Pleurotus giganteus (Berk.) Karunarathna & K.D.Hyde, in Karunarathna et al. Mycotaxon 118: 62 (2011).
Australian distribution
Qld (and possibly also northern W.A. and N.T.).
Habitat
In native forests.
Substrate
On the ground, usually around stumps. The fruit-body is connected to buried wood, which can be as much as 30 cm below ground level.
Trophic status
Saprotrophic.
References
Corner, E.J.H. (1981), The agaric genera Lentinus, Panus and Pleurotus with particular reference to Malaysian species, Beih. Nova Hedwigia 69: 1–169. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. giganteus (as Panus)]
Karunarathna, S.C., Yang, Z.L., Raspé, O., Ko Ko, T.W., Vellinga, E.C., Zhao, R.-L., Bahkali, A.H., Chukeatirote, E., Degreef, J., Callac, P. & Hyde, K.D. (2011), Lentinus giganteus revisited: new collections from Sri Lanka and Thailand, Mycotaxon 118: 57–71. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of P. giganteus]
Pegler, D.N. (1983b), The genus Lentinus: a world monograph, Kew Bull., Addit. Ser. 10: 1–281. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. giganteus (as Lentinus)]
Pegler, D.N. (1986), Agaric flora of Sri Lanka, Kew Bull., Addit. Ser. 12: 1–519. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. giganteus (as Lentinus)]