Fungi still flourishing in my garden

[Toadflax]

Despite fairly sharp frosts over the past few days, this beautiful clump of pale mauve fungi seem to be thriving. At first glance, they could be amethyst deceiver. Certainly to my eye, the gill pattern and colour seem similar, but they seem much larger than any deceivers I have seen.

They are growing in soil, alongside a well established beech hedge, with a layer of shredded twigs /wood covering the soil.


Geoff

 

[Matt Weir]

Not got my books to hand Geoff but I'm sure that in my River Cottage 'shroom book there was a warning next to the Amethyst Deceiver about a larger fungi that was more mauve than purple but has been mistaken for Amethyst Deceiver. This could be the fellow?

Xylaria will likely be along soon

 

[xylaria]

If the spore print is rose white and it smells like frosty grass it is probably a lepista nuda or wood blewit. The gills on the funky shaped one you have shown don't look as crowded as they are in blewit, but that can happen in weird shape specimens. The gills though are what is called sinuate , which is a slight indent where the gill touches the stem. This is a feature of blewits. Blewits are triggered into fruiting by frosts and are last good eater of year. They should be cooked , and can make some people a little ill if over consumed.

They are not that many purple fungi around, there several purple cortinarius spp, these have brown spores. There is also inocybe geophylla that could confused with amethyst deceiver, but the gills are crowded and well formed where as amethyst gills are very far apart. The spore print is also brown with inocybes. So pinky white spores=lepista, brown spores= die horridly (only kidding ).

 

[Toadflax]

Xylaria will likely be along soon

Just what I was thinking!



I'll run a spore print and see what I get, but now I look in my ID book, wood blewit does seem quite likely - it's in my edible fungi book. I really need to study my books in more detail. I tend to get them and read them avidly then forget about them.

Here's some more detail of the smaller of the larger two - the one that is partially hidden by the biggest one in my first original photo.


Geoff

 

[xylaria]

I tend to get them and read them avidly then forget about them.

Yeah that whats I do to.
I started reading RMs wild food properly yesterday, very interesting and good book, i had it for about 6 weeks and had just looked at the pictures of plants bits without actually reading it.

Here is some pictures of dodgy purple fungi;


http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Cortinarius_purpurascens_var._largusoides.htm

http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Cortinarius_alboviolaceus.htm

http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Cortinarius_violaceus_ssp._hercynicus.htm

http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Cortinarius_traganus.htm [this has been eaten in mistake for a blewit]

http://www.grzyby.pl/gatunki/Inocybe_geophylla.htm [this one is the dodgy look-a-like to an amethyst, if can sometimes be very purple but the gills are always crowded]

I don't speak Polish, I just like the website as the pictures are very good.

Geoff have you inhaled yet? and how would you discribe the smell?

 

[Toadflax]

Geoff have you inhaled yet? and how would you discribe the smell?

Yes, I did that when I broke open the cap, and I've just gone and had another smell of it...

...to my untrained nose it smells like...

...mushrooms! The smell isn't strong, but seems not dissimilar to ordinary mushrooms - but less strong.


Geoff

PS: Not sure how good my olfactory system is - I can never detect "a hint of blackberry" or anything like that when I smell wines.

 

[xylaria]

Lepista nuda has a very distinctive smell that has various descriptions, but I have given to the uninitiated and they said it smelt like mushrooms. There is lepista sordida that has very little smell and is very simerlar.

What is it with mycologist with latin names. Clitocybes whats that all about.

 

[Toadflax]

The spore print is coming along, though I'm going to leave it running overnight. My colour vision isn't too good in artificial light, but the spores that have dropped so far are definitely light. I'd say white, though I could possibly believe they are a very pale pink if someone told me (a bit like those "rose white" emulsion paints). I've done the print onto an OHP slide and held it against black card and white paper.

I think I'd notice if the smell was distinctive but, being inexperienced in smelling fungi, I'm not sure what I should be expecting.

Anyway, I'm not going to eat them...

...or am I?

[EDIT]I've just been down the garden with my head torch on to have another smell - I crushed the cap and smelled it, but it still doesn't seem distinctinve to me![/EDIT]



Geoff

 

[Toadflax]

And here's a really nice thick spore print that has run overnight. Colour reproduction won't be too good, but in the cold light of day it is a beautiful pale pink colour. The background is me and the sky reflecting off the surface of the OHP slide.

I think that the 'trail' at the bottom left of the image must have been caused by a current of air carrying some of the spores out of a wrinkle in the clingfilm that covered the cap.


Geoff

 

[Matt Weir]

So, do we have a verdict?

 

[Toadflax]

So, do we have a verdict?

Not sure - I still don't have enough info to risk eating it - I don't have enough reference books in the house to do any other cross checking. Wood Blewit (Lepista nuda) certainly seems a possibility. Spore print, smell, sinuate gills, location, time of year, size, colour all fit Wood Blewit...

But the cap that was left in the house overnight does have quite a strong smell now - I can't describe it, but it does now definitely seem a non-fungal smell and pretty strong. The cap I smelled yesterday was out in the garden, where the temperature must have been close to freezing - certainly there was frost on the grass. Maybe the chemicals that make up the smell aren't that volatile in low temperatures.

Anyway, to quote Matt, Xylaria should be along soon...



Geoff

 

[xylaria]

Entolomas have darker pinker spores and pluteus have english rose [dulux paint range] pink spores, not the very pale shade the spore print is. They are also very differant in shape than your blewit. You have to be sure in yourself over what you are eating as worry can make you ill. In my opinion your first instincts are correct. You have gone through every criteria and they all agree.

I know every bit advice of learning fungi says go out with an expert, when I was a teenager I didn't. Maybe it was the foolishness of youth, but I am completely self taught. I was at it a few years before i ate any though.

A tip I use for crosschecking is put the latin name into google images, then you get loads of differant views of your target species. i find it makes ID very easy.

[edit $orry if I sounded a bit grumpy this morning I get SAD in needed to get outside, I have editted all the bits that sounded sarky]

 

[Toadflax]

[edit $orry if I sounded a bit grumpy this morning I get SAD in needed to get outside, I have editted all the bits that sounded sarky]

Not at all. I thought you were being deliberately funny! You should take Matt Weir's and my comments about waiting for Xylaria to come along as a compliment. Like waiting for Toddy to drop in some nugget of wisdom about non fungal wild food.

Although reading Mr Red's recent postings has rather knocked me down, I was going to do a funny response so, stiff upper lip and all that.

Xylaria (aka Marvin): "Brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to identify a button mushroom."

Remember, "always look on the bright side of life, da dum, da dum, da dum da dum da dum".





Geoff