Medium to very large agaric, growing on the ground or wood, with a white spore print. Pileus pale, brown or grey, dry or moist. Lamellae decurrent. Stipe central or excentric. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama interwoven, radiate. Context dimitic with skeletal hyphae. Pileipellis a trichoderm. Clamp connections present.

Pleurotus tuber-regium differs from other Pleurotus in usually producing a sclerotium. It has a dimitic context with skeletal hyphae (present in some other Pleurotus). It shares the leathery texture, dimitic context and radiate lamellar trama with Panus, but a sclerotium is lacking in that genus.

One species: Pleurotus tuber-regium (= Lentinus, Panus). This species is keyed out separately to other species of Pleurotus due to the presence of a sclerotium.

Pleurotus tuber-regium (Fr.) Singer, Lilloa 22: 271 (1951).

Qld (and possibly also northern W.A. and N.T.).

In native forests.

On the ground, usually arising from an underground sclerotium, or sometimes directly on wood. The sclerotium is formed in fallen dead trunks and falls to the ground when the wood has rotted away, and then becomes covered with soil.

Saprotrophic.

Aberdeen, J.E.C. (1979), An Introduction to the Mushrooms, Toadstools and Larger Fungi of Queensland. Queensland Naturalists' Club. [B&W Illustration of P. tuber-regium]

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. tuber-regium (as Panus)]

Cribb, J.W. (1994), The fungus Panus tuber-regium in a Queensland Araucaria forest, Queensland Naturalist 32: 137–138. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. tuber-regium (as Panus)]

Hibbett, D.S. & Thorn, R.G. (1994), Nematode-trapping in Pleurotus tuberregium, Mycologia 86: 696–699. [Demonstrate that P. tuber-regium produces nematotoxic droplets in culture, consistent with its placement in Pleurotus rather than Lentinus or Panus]

Hood, I.A. (2003), An Introduction to Fungi on Wood in Queensland. University of New England, School of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources Management, Armidale. [Description and B&W Illustration of P. tuber-regium]

Isikhuemhen, O.S., Moncalvo, J.-M., Nerud, F. & Vilgalys, R. (2000), Mating compatibility and phylogeography in Pleurotus tuber-regium, Mycol. Res. 104: 732–737. [Notes that some Australian isolates of P. tuber-regium do not produce sclerotia]

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. tuber-regium (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 of P. tuber-regium (as Lentinus)]