The wrinkled peach mushroom
In the magical world of fungi, I spotted the wrinkled peach mushroom, or Rhodotus palmatus, while foraging for chicken of the woods in June. This fruiting body stands out with its unique appearance. Known for its distinctive wrinkled cap and color, it easily caught my attention when I saw pink among the brown branches and green summer vegetation. Some say this mushroom is rare and hard to find; in addition, there isn’t much information on its edibility or compounds. So, I figured, why not try to culture and cultivate it for fun, just to see where things go? Here is my experience.
Who is The Wrinkled Peach Mushroom?
The wrinkled peach, netted rhodotus, and rosy vein cap are common names for this rare mushroom. Its scientific name is Rhodotus palmatus. This saprobic mushroom is widely distributed around the world but hard to spot. Just like its name suggests, this mushroom has a wrinkly cap that ranges from pink to pinkish-cream, resembling a peach. At a younger stage, it is more pink with a pinkish to white spore load.
Fun fact: this mushroom is the only kind in its genus, which makes it a monotypic species. There aren’t many lookalikes out there, let alone pink fruiting bodies in general.
Working with the Culture
R. palmatus mycelium is very aggressive, thin, and wispy on agar. In fact, when I first took a tissue culture, I didn’t think anything was happening until I saw pins popping up. I then transferred a wedge to a liquid culture broth to expand the mycelium for cultivation.
Wood chips, spent coffee, sawdust, and many other agricultural wastes are all great mediums to grow mushrooms on. It’s always good to consider what your mushroom is growing from naturally in the wild; this may help its performance when cultivated. In this case, as a saprobic mushroom, it breaks down wood and other forest debris. So, I decided to utilize hardwood sawdust, soybean hulls, and organic rye berries for my substrate and grain medium. Since sawdust is essentially broken-down wood and rye grain is a great driver for mycelium, I thought they would be perfect for this project—both very affordable.
Getting Peachy
After inoculating the rye grains with liquid culture, I placed the grains in a cool, dark area to incubate at 60°F–65°F for 20 days. Once fully colonized, I then spawned it to sawdust substrate, creating a 3-pound block at a 1:2 ratio, and repeated the incubation stage for another 20 days.
It was hard to tell when the block was ready to fruit due to the wispy mycelium. My indication came when I saw primordia starting at day 45.
Fruits
Once I noticed my blocks were pinning, it was time to place them in fruiting conditions. This part was really fun because I had to do some experimenting. I dusted off an old monotub that I had laying around, filled the bottom with hydrated perlite, misted it heavily once a day, and let it sit on my porch in mid-September. Here in Minnesota, the temperature ranged from 60°F to 65°F with a relative humidity of 35%–40%, along with a consistent breeze and natural ambient lighting from my porch. I introduced oxygen by cutting two “X’s” on the side of the block, similar to how you would for an oyster mushroom block to trigger fruiting. If you aren’t too familiar with growing mushrooms, they typically thrive in a mix of humidity and fresh air.
After week one of fruiting conditions, I noticed a bright pink cap peeking out of its slit, reaching for air and light. About five days later, they fully matured and emitted a sweet/sour aroma. I managed to take spore prints and tissue samples for further expansion and experimentation. I believe it’s not always about cultivating mushrooms for their edibility, but more importantly, collecting and preserving cultures for future studies and compounds. Most importantly, just have fun!
