The Ultimate "What is this Fungi?" thread.

[xylaria]

European jelly ear works fine in asian cuisine. Dried and crushed up it makes a good soup powder.

 

[persistent king]

this popped up outside my mums a couple of weeks ago , id please

 

[Harvestman]

Fly Agaric. Poisonous.

 

[persistent king]

whats the most common edable mushroom and easy to identify in our british woodlands ? or isnt there one that grows more than others (if you know what i mean)? do we have more common or popular types than others ?

 

[Harvestman]

That will depend very much on where you are. The only answer is go out and see what you can find, then check it very carefully to identify it, preferably checking with someone who knows their fungi. That way you slowly learn to identify a few fungi, and you build up knowledge over time.

I'm afraid with fungi there are no shortcuts, and given that there is another thread on here about fatalities from eating poisonous mushrooms, you would never eat a mushroom you were not 100% certain of the identity of.

To be honest, now probably isn't a good time to start. Have a look at Geoff's website (link is in all of his posts) as a good introduction. He is the expert on here.

 

[persistent king]

will do thanks matey

 

[Harvestman]

Sorry for the lecture

 

[persistent king]

not at all mate thanks for the advice.

 

[persistent king]

saw these today while i was out walking , they were at the side of a small stream , id please.

 

[mercurykev]

saw these today while i was out walking , they were at the side of a small stream , id please.

Some clouded funnels that are past their best perhaps?

 

[Geoff Dann]

No, not clouded funnel. Wrong habitat for a start. Those aren't really identifiable at all from that picture. The picture is out of focus, the mushrooms are very old and the species is not obvious (to me anyway.) Probably some sort of Clitocybe.

 

[xylaria]

Is that rotted wood?

The piccy is awful

Lyophyllum connatum ????

I wouldn't say the habitat was wrong for a cloud cap at all, there is what looks like woody detris, the piccy isn't clear all whether it is con/bl leaf litter or flytipped chipboard or even a mix of the lot.

 

[red devil]

There's about four times as many native and naturalised non-microscopic fungi in the UK (approx 10,000) as there are native and naturalised non-microscopic plants (approx 2,500).



Hi Steve

Not easy. Have you got any other shots? I can't quite work out what the underside is like. Pores? Teeth? Do you know what sort of wood it is? What does it feel like? How tough is the flesh? Does it smell of anything?

If possible, cut one in half and show us a section.

It may be one of the many fungi that occur in the northern half of Scotland but are absent from most of the rest of the UK. I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before, and I don't think it is in any of my books. Not that that is all that unusual...

Geoff

Hi again Geoff,
This has been driving me nuts for weeks now - since I posted this picture I can't find the damn things again! But what I have found and, I think, managed to identify in the same woodland is some Purple Jelly fungus, some huge and beautiful birch polypore and plenty of many zoned polypore.
What a fascinating new hobby I've stumbled across - I never knew fungus could be so interesting. I'll keep looking and hopefully they won't have died off by the time I find them, useless tracker that I am!
Steve

 

[Geoff Dann]

Hi again Geoff,
This has been driving me nuts for weeks now - since I posted this picture I can't find the damn things again! But what I have found and, I think, managed to identify in the same woodland is some Purple Jelly fungus, some huge and beautiful birch polypore and plenty of many zoned polypore.
What a fascinating new hobby I've stumbled across - I never knew fungus could be so interesting. I'll keep looking and hopefully they won't have died off by the time I find them, useless tracker that I am!
Steve

If it's wintry up there then you probably won't see them again until next year. Look out for those Velvet Shanks instead...

 

[red devil]

Found this solitary little fellow on my morning ramble with the dog. It was on a very dead birch log. I've been studying my Collins Complete Guide To British Mushrooms and Toadstools (£4.99, reduced from £16.99... bargain!) and I'm thinking it's a Common Bonnet (mycena galericulata). It has a slightly convext and striated cap with clearly distant creamy-coloured gills. The stipe is smooth and cylindrical and, if memory serves, there wasn't much of a volva. The colouration of the cap and stipe is a little lighter in real life than the pictures show. My other best guess was a Rooting Shank (Xerula radicata) but the cap wasn't as moist as the guide suggests it should be. Be interested to hear if anyone thinks I might be right (I'm very new at this) or, if I'm wrong, what might it be?

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Cheers,
Steve

PS I also found some Turkeytail (Trametes versicolor) on the same walk. This is turning into a fascinating hobby, but it makes the dog walks last ages because I'm stopping every few minutes and scrambling through bushes!

 

[xylaria]

I would agree it with probably been a mycena galericulata or pretty close. Mycena are difficult at best, there is a feature between the gills with the wrinkles in the mushroom you picked, that feature should be in the book.

good book for a fiver.

 

[Chiseller]

 

[xylaria]

It looks like one mighty fine tinder box fungus fomes fomentarius but i would need to double check as there is quite a few simerlar. I presume that is willow it is growing on, it certainly looks pretty dead as trees go.

 

[Chiseller]

It looks like one mighty fine tinder box fungus fomes fomentarius but i would need to double check as there is quite a few simerlar. I presume that is willow it is growing on, it certainly looks pretty dead as trees go.

Aye its willow, apart from the colours I was wondering if its more likely to be....Phellinus ignarius....this wood is full of em .

 

[Chiseller]

Here's most of the variety on these willows.....
Perhaps this is Phellinus..

.

Cheers