Termitomyces aurantiacus

What it is

Termitomyces aurantiacus is also written as Termitomyces striatus var. aurantiacus, the name under which the EFTA species page treats it. The EFTA page describes a cap of 6 to 10 cm, a stipe without a ring, and creamy pinkish spores. It describes the species as very similar to Termitomyces striatus, which it separates by a greyish-brown colour without a yellowish tinge.

The fungus is a member of the genus that farms termites' symbiotic partners. The EFTA page gives Pseudacanthotermes militaris as the termite it is associated with. The catalogue lists the common name termite mushroom. The EFTA page gives no common name, and the catalogue does not validate the name against current taxonomic authorities, so the accepted name is not resolved here.

Habitat and ecology

The EFTA page places the fungus in wet miombo woodland, muhulu, cultivated land and gardens. The catalogue describes it as a termite symbiont whose fruit bodies emerge from termite-associated substrate, and lists it as wild.

In a separate ethnomycological study from Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, three other Termitomyces species are recorded as eaten by local informants. Termitomyces aurantiacus is not among them, so that record does not apply to this species.

Taste and use

The EFTA page describes the flesh as having a strong, pleasant taste and a moderately pleasant odour. The catalogue records its food use as soups and fried dishes, and records that some Termitomyces are preserved by frying in oil. The catalogue does not state that this preservation applies to Termitomyces aurantiacus in particular.

A market survey in Pu'er Prefecture, Yunnan, lists Termitomyces aurantiacus (voucher HKAS-122633) as edible and records the genus among popular species sold in the studied markets. The survey gives the genus soup and fried mushroom oil as preparations, and its prices are higher than those of most other species sold there.

How the fungus is cleaned, cooked or stored is not recorded in the sources read for this entry.

Safety and identification

This entry is not an edibility verdict or an identification. The EFTA page gives no explicit food-safety or toxicity statement for this species. Its identification description separates it from Termitomyces striatus by colour, and the EFTA page calls the two very similar.

Wild mushrooms must be identified by a qualified expert before any use. Local use in one region does not show that a lookalike collected elsewhere is the same organism.