The Ultimate "What is this Fungi?" thread.

[xylaria]

I plumped for a tinder box as the spore surface is too pale for a ignarius and the top hasnt got the telltale brown spore dusting of ganoderma. The margin is like a tinder fungi.

The new photos depending on size has some gone over oysters probably. Providing they are above 6cm across they are the right group the gills need to white to fresh. I havent a scouby about the respunate fungi with the spikey hymenopore, I will have good look, I have creeping feeling it might be a lichen not fungi though. .

 

[Chiseller]

I reckon your right abaht hoof/tinder box....I just didn't know it can grow on willow ? Cheers

 

[red devil]

Hi all,
I was in a mixed woodland in Lancashire at the weekend and came across these on a fallen silver birch.

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The second picture is of the underside of one of the fruits in the first picture.
After consulting my Collins guide I'm thinking it's Stereum hirsutum (Hairy Curtain Crust) but I would welcome any input from more experienced folk on the forum.
Many thanks,
Steve

 

[Geoff Dann]

I'm no expert on these, and a pic of the underside would help, but it might be Lenzites betulinus (Birch Mazegill)

 

[red devil]

I'm no expert on these, and a pic of the underside would help, but it might be Lenzites betulinus (Birch Mazegill)

Hi Geoff,
The second picture is of the underside - I know it looks like the top of a mushroom but I plucked it from the large cluster in the first picture, turned it over and photographed it.
If you look at the concentric rings on the second picture, they're quite different from the patterning on the upper of the caps in the first picture.
I must admit that I was quite surprised to see those rings underneath the cap, where I would normally expect to see gills or pores.
For all these reasons, that's why I was leaning more toward Stereum hirsutum rather than Birch Mazegill.
Bit of a puzzler this one, eh?
Cheers,
Steve

BTW: Don't be so modest - "I'm no expert" ???

 

[red devil]

I'm no expert on these, and a pic of the underside would help, but it might be Lenzites betulinus (Birch Mazegill)

Hmm, after a good root around on the web and in my books, I'm starting to think I've got it wrong and you're right. Maybe my mind's playing tricks on me and I didn't turn the thing over for the second picture - could've sworn that was what I'd done. Anyway, it definitely looks like the several examples of Birch mazegill I've found. That's another one chalked off for my personal nature-walks notebook. Many thanks for your help once again Geoff. I've got another one for you but I'll leave it for later.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[Geoff Dann]

Hi Geoff,
The second picture is of the underside - I know it looks like the top of a mushroom but I plucked it from the large cluster in the first picture, turned it over and photographed it.

Not Birch Mazegill then.

BTW: Don't be so modest - "I'm no expert" ???

Not being modest. I have spent much of the last twenty-odd years trying to identify edible fungi whilst avoiding poisoning myself, but stuff like this which is both obviously inedible but not obvious to identify...I just passed those by. It's only in the last three years I've been seriously trying to identify the inedible stuff.

 

[red devil]

Here's the other one I was talking about earlier.
Checking in my Collins guide, there seem to be few funghi with black tops like this one.

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I was thinking it's possibly of the Phellinus species, and as it was on yet another birch (there's hunnerds of the blighters round here), I wondered if it was Phellinus Lundellii.
Here's a picture of the underside:

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My other suggestion was that they might be Ischnoderma benzoinum (Benzoin bracket), but I'm doubtful because they are quite uncommon in Scotland, plus they lack the concentric rings normally found on the top of Benzoin.
Once again, I'd be very grateful for any help.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[Geoff Dann]

Yeah...sorry, again I'm just not familiar enough with these. Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Geoff Dann]

I havent a scouby about the respunate fungi with the spikey hymenopore, I will have good look, I have creeping feeling it might be a lichen not fungi though. .

I was thinking Auricularia mesenterica, but I'm not sure about those spikes. Need to know how fleshy it is.

 

[red devil]

I found this beautiful funghi on a fallen beech trunk over a burn in Loch Libo nature reserve near Neilston, East Renfrewshire this morning.
It was the only one of its kind (though I did find some dazzling Scarlet Elf Cups) and because it was in the middle of the burn, I struggled to get a really clear photo of it.
The colouration was kind of creamy and the underside was amazing - coral-like gills.
I've scoured the Collins Complete Guide and can't see anything like it, or even close to it, so I'd love some help if anyone has any ideas.
Here are the photos:

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[Geoff Dann]

Phlebia tremellosa is my best guess for that one.

 

[Mad Mike]

I am not even sure if this is a Fungi or a growth of some kind. On a chestnut coppice stem that was being felled anyway

At least the background is in focus

Looks like it grew on the sub of a dead twig

Any ideas

Mike

 

[Geoff Dann]

That's a burr/burl. Not a fungus, but might be caused by one.

 

[Chiseller]

Just spied this on a hazel....

 

[Geoff Dann]

Believe it or not, that is edible.

Tremella foliacea / "Leafy Brain."

It is actually parasitising another fungus in the tree (a "crust"), rather than the tree itself.

 

[mountainm]

Oysters?

No idea what this one is:

 

[Geoff Dann]

Looks like it, yes.

I reckon the brown blobs are young beefsteaks.

 

[red devil]

Found this little beauty on a log in mixed woodland of old elm, beech, birch and sycamore.
The log it was on was, I think, elm - though it was hard to determine because of the degree of decay.
The funghi has a viscid cap with faint striations at the edges, which are slightly wavy.
The cap was marginally convex, with a bright yellow outer darkening toward the centre.
The stipe was cylindrical and markedly darker than the cap or gills, which are shown in the second picture as being a dark creamy colour, I think free or adnate and quite distant and of differing lengths.
There is no ring on the stipe, nor a volva at the base.

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Does anyone have any ideas what it might be?
I can't find anything like it in my Collins guide - there are plenty of similarly yellow/orange mushrooms, but none with the same dark stipe.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[red devil]

Found this little beauty on a log in mixed woodland of old elm, beech, birch and sycamore.
The log it was on was, I think, elm - though it was hard to determine because of the degree of decay.
The funghi has a viscid cap with faint striations at the edges, which are slightly wavy.
The cap was marginally convex, with a bright yellow outer darkening toward the centre.
The stipe was cylindrical and markedly darker than the cap or gills, which are shown in the second picture as being a dark creamy colour, I think free or adnate and quite distant and of differing lengths.
There is no ring on the stipe, nor a volva at the base.

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Does anyone have any ideas what it might be?
I can't find anything like it in my Collins guide - there are plenty of similarly yellow/orange mushrooms, but none with the same dark stipe.
Cheers,
Steve

Okay, I'm fairly sure I've answered my own question and that this is Flammulina velutipes, or Velvet Shank. I was led astray a bit by the really bright colouration but I now understand they darken with age, meaning this is a fairly young specimen.