Though most commonly called the scaly sawgill, I simply love the drama of the name train wrecker, so that's what I'll be using here.
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| Just look at all that dense, bug-free mushroomy goodness |
The train wrecker is edible, though often downplayed, invalidated and ignored. Called tough, woody, fibrous and bland, it's passed over for more popular late spring and early summer delights.
But that's a shame, because the train wrecker is, when SUPER fresh, not at all tough or woody and while it's not one of the most flavorful mushrooms, it's amazingly dense, meaty texture more than makes up for that fact.
Also, this mushroom is only rarely attacked by insects.
The train wrecker can also grow quite large, providing quite a lot of food. Across North America it's rather uncommon, but can be regionally abundant. If you are foraging in forests east of the Rockies that identify as "Piney Woods", (New Jersey Pine Barens, Texas Piney Woods, etc), during the rainy season, there is a strong likelihood of encountering this mushroom, even if you aren't looking for it.
N. lepideus can also be found in Western Europe, though apparently much less abundantly.
Train wrecker mushroom identification
Growth habits
- Found exclusively on dead conifer wood or stumps, especially pine, most often east of the Rocky Mountains
- Note: The train-wrecker can also be found on cut logs and boards, both treated and untreated, especially west of the Rocky Mountains. These should not be consumed. The mushroom can pick-up toxins from the treatment and pass them on to you. Only eat mushrooms found growing on natural materials, in areas that seem unpolluted.
- Grows individually or in clusters of caps from a single stem
Cap and size
- This is a large mushroom. Caps range in diameter from 3" to 10".
- Cap is white, beige, yellow or even orange in the middle, and generally lighter means fresher.
- The cap of N. lepideus has dark, chocolate- or amber- brown scales in the center.
Gills
- The gills for the train wrecker are often described as serrated, or saw-toothed, but I don't personally like this description, as it implies triangular shapes that are fairly evenly sized and distributed.
- To me, the gill edges are like torn paper, or the edges of very old books; they are jagged, irregular and often feature square shapes or small nicks.
- Gills are moderately spaced, which means there is generally a gill-space in-between two adjacent gills.
- The gills attach to the stalk (which is technically called a stipe), and are often decurrant (they extend down somewhat onto the mushroom stalk).
Stem/Stipe
- The stipe (mushroom stem) for N. lepideus is quite distinctive.
- Stem features fibrous scales, facing upwards towards the cap (unusual), which peal backwards towards the base of the mushroom.
- Fibrous scales start out as white, but will turn dark brown quickly, especially at the base
- When broken or cut, the stem is like a thick, dense cotton in texture.
- The stem is pretty much the same thickness along the whole length, it doesn't really taper, and is only wider at the base if it joins to other mushrooms.
- Clusters of caps can share a stem at the base, but the base may be buried in the wood, making stems appear separate.
