About this fungus
Wrinkled Peach is a fungus in the Physalacriaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A pink to peach wood-growing mushroom with a thick gelatinous cap skin. Fresh caps often carry a striking network of pale raised ridges, giving them a veined or quilted appearance.
What to check
Look for the rubbery gelatinous cap surface, pinkish spore print, pale pink gills and an often off-centre fibrous stem. Growth directly from well-decayed broadleaved wood is important. There is no ring or volva.
Variation
The cap network ranges from dramatic to faint and may be nearly absent on some fruit bodies. Colour fades from pink to peach or pale apricot with age, and moisture droplets may collect on fresh caps.
Lookalikes
The combination of pink spores, gelatinous cap skin, hardwood substrate and a netted surface is distinctive, but poorly wrinkled specimens are less obvious. Other pink wood-growing mushrooms should be checked for spore colour, cap texture and stem attachment rather than named from colour alone.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic on well-decayed broadleaved logs and branches, especially elm in Europe but also maple, basswood, horse chestnut and other hardwoods regionally. It occurs across Europe, North America and parts of Asia, often in damp or flood-prone woodland.
Food safety
Inedible.
Photographs
Dan Molter / CC BY-SA 3.0
Dan Molter / CC BY-SA 3.0