Hymenophore – part of the fruiting body of the fungus, bearing a thin spore-bearing layer on the surface – hymenium… Often the surface of the hymenophore is highly developed, which allows the fungus to produce more spores.

The signs of the hymenophore are important both in identifying large groups of fungi and in distinguishing between closely related species.

Common signs

  • The connection between the hymenophore and the cap… In most boletus mushrooms, the tubular layer is easily separated from the pulp of the cap, while the lamellar hymenophore is usually firmly attached to the cap. There are relatively small groups of lamellar fungi (for example, the Pig family) with a weakly attached hymenophore. This sign is easy to identify if you cut the edge of the cap: a small gap will appear on the cut, allowing you to separate the hymenophore from the pulp.
  • Color… Often, mushrooms are divided into two large groups: with a light-colored and with a dark hymenophore. The color of the hymenophore can vary greatly with age, so reference books always provide a description of this change. For a more accurate determination, the color of the spore powder is used, which does not always coincide with the color of the hymenophore.
  • The connection between the hymenophore and the leg…
    • Creeping – the hymenophore passes from the cap to the leg, sometimes descends to its lower part.
    • Adherent – the hymenophore grows to the leg, but does not descend along it.
    • Free – does not have contact with the surface of the leg.

For an adherent hymenophore, several more options are distinguished: widespread, narrowly accreted, With notch or prong near the leg.

It is convenient to study the nature of the attachment of the hymenophore to the pedicle on the body, cut along the center line.

Types of hymenophores

Smooth

Chestnut pecica

The smooth hymenophore is the simplest; it does not have a developed surface. This type is most often found in ascomycetes and is located on the upper surface of the cupped apothecia or on the outer surface of the morel caps.

In addition to ascomycetes, it also happens in other mushrooms with clavate, coral-shaped fruiting bodies and in some species of the family Cantharellaceae (gray funnel).

Folded

Common chanterelle

This type has a surface in the form of radial folds or randomly spaced wrinkles. It is found mainly in clavate and prostrate fruiting bodies, but it is also characteristic of some caps. Mushrooms of some families (Paxillaceae, Cantharellaceae) have a folded hymenophore, which outwardly strongly resembles a lamellar, such mushrooms are often described as lamellar.

Prickly

A prickly hymenophore is found in prostrate, bushy and cap-pedunculated fruiting bodies. Consists of conical or needle-shaped spines, usually located on the lower surface of the fungus. It is especially characteristic of the families Hydnaceae and Bankeraceae, but it also occurs in others (for example, in the fungus Auriscalpium growing on fallen pine cones and in the gelatinous bumbleberry).

Tubular

Winter tinder fungus hymenophore

A tubular, or porous layer is found in boletus and tinder fungi. It is always located on the lower surface of the cap or sessile fruiting body, it is a mass of tubules that open downward. Almost always, the tubules form a solid mass, but in one fungus – the liverwort – the tubules do not grow together with their lateral walls and can be easily separated from each other.

An important identifying feature is pore size… The reference books indicate the size of one pore or the number of pores per 1 millimeter of the hymenophore surface. Another important sign is form: The pores can be regular, round or angular. Color the porous surface (i.e., the pores themselves, or the holes of the tubes) may differ from the color of the tubular mass, this is clearly visible on the section of the hymenophore.

Labyrinth

The pores of the humpback tinder fungus

This type of spore-bearing layer is a modification of a tubular layer with pores elongated in the radial direction and tube walls missing in some places. Sometimes the tubules are so deformed that in appearance such a surface becomes similar to a lamellar or folded hymenophore. Found in tinder fungi (family Fomitopsidaceae, Coriolaceae) with sessile fruiting bodies.

Lamellar

Among the cap mushrooms, the lamellar ones are most common. The plates are outgrowths of the fungal tissue on the lower surface of the cap; they diverge radially from the stem (or from the place of attachment to the substrate of the sessile cap).

The main identifying features of the plates are their density and connection with the stem. Many mushrooms have plates of different lengths – normal (reaching the leg), shortened (do not reach the leg) and even shorter plates… The genus Umbrella Mushroom and some non-nippers are characterized by collarium – a small ring or collar around the leg, to which the plates grow. In some fungi, the plates are branched or have transverse bridges.

  • Amanita muscaria. Plates are straight, frequent, there are shortened and plates

  • Branchless nematodes. Plates are rare, branched, broadly accrete

  • Wheeled reluctance. The plates are very rare, with colarium, the shortened ones are absent