The Ultimate "What is this Fungi?" thread.

[Geoff Dann]

No puffballs yet but got my first boletus luridus of the season a few days ago whilst out hunting chantrelles, jealous of you having parasols up there as I have never found them here and they are supposed to be choice eating

"Down there" I think you meant... They were actually shaggy parasols.

 

[Paulm]

I went out for a mooch around my favourite area here yesterday and nothing at all to be seen except for one tiny chanterelle and a couple of deer

Mind you, I have several quite large jars of dried assortments that we're still working our way through so it's not like we need any more mushrooms, but it's fun !!!

Cheers, Paul

 

[Harvestman]

Found lots more Agaricus augustus today, but only a few in edible condition. Most had gone past the good eating stage. Now hoping for a second crop.

 

[Lynx]

Picked a lovely fresh puffball last week. I haven't seen one for ages and so it was a nice surprise. It was about 6" in diameter and tasted great!

 

[Geoff Dann]

Found lots more Agaricus augustus today, but only a few in edible condition. Most had gone past the good eating stage. Now hoping for a second crop.

Given the long-term weather forecast, I suspect they (and lots of other things) are going to appear sporadically from now until November. For non-fungi-lovers, this summer is going to be a washout. For the fungi, autumn has come early.

 

[mercurykev]

On a bike ride today I found these growing in Beech leaf litter at the bottom of a bank - reference to Phillips makes me think they might be Pseduocraterellus Undulatus - they are like an oatmeal coloured Chanterelle with a nice fruity smell. Any other suggestions.?

 

[Geoff Dann]

On a bike ride today I found these growing in Beech leaf litter at the bottom of a bank - reference to Phillips makes me think they might be Pseduocraterellus Undulatus - they are like an oatmeal coloured Chanterelle with a nice fruity smell. Any other suggestions.?

I wish people wouldn't do this. You don't really have any idea what these mushrooms are, and you've picked all of them hoping they are edible, which you would be pointless if you couldn't then come here and post them to get an ID.

They don't look anything like P. undulatus or anything else in the same family of mushrooms. I am not sure what they actually are, which is precisely why I would not personally have picked them all. Probably some sort of Clitocybe. If it is C. nebularis then it is completely out of season.

 

[Harvestman]

Lots of fungi about in two woodlands that I visited today. here's a selection. I know what most of them are, I think, but I'll post them up for people to see anyway.

Still lots of stinkhorns about


Sulphur tuft


Stalked puffball? I'm not very good at puffball types. Lycoperdon perlatum possibly?


Lots of these milk caps around too. I know this one as Lactarius deterrimus, but wouldn't be surprised to be corrected.


Possibly a Cortinarius?


Don't know these two at all, and the first is too battered for me to expect an identification. It's a bolete-type, but can't say more. No idea about the white one.


And these were everywhere, growing on fallen twigs. Slightly over-exposed shot. I might guess that they are a Marasmius, but don't expect anyone to make a serious identification from a photograph.


It was nice just seeing a good variety of fungi out today. There were lots more that I didn't get pictures of.

Finally, got to agree with Geoff's post above. Terrible identification and worse collecting practice.

 

[mercurykev]

I wish people wouldn't do this. You don't really have any idea what these mushrooms are, and you've picked all of them hoping they are edible, which you would be pointless if you couldn't then come here and post them to get an ID.

They don't look anything like P. undulatus or anything else in the same family of mushrooms. I am not sure what they actually are, which is precisely why I would not personally have picked them all. Probably some sort of Clitocybe. If it is C. nebularis then it is completely out of season.

Geoff, I can assure you that I'm not going about randomly picking mushrooms with the hope that you'll be able to tell me if I'm able to eat them or not. I am trying to get a bit of understanding myself on identifying fungi generally and admit that have someone like you (and other on here) who know a lot about there things is an excellent resource.

As a bit of background to my thinking, I found these are a spot where I'd found Chanterelles last year and they were growing in a similar cluster formation. This, and what I took to be a similar gill structure, is what led me to pick then with a view of trying to identify them at home - to me they looked a bit like bigger, oat coloured Chanterelles. I picked a number of them to allow me to make a comparison using the Phillips book and the internet. Now I can see that by limiting myself to that family led me to make a poor identification based on a sort of best fit approach.

 

[mountainm]

This big bracket was spotted on a stump by the river in york

 

[Geoff Dann]

That's some sort of Ganoderma. They are impressive fungi.

 

[21st century pict]

Possibly a Cortinarius?
QUOTE]
Or possibly a Field Blewit Lepista Personata ? Geoff Dann is probably the man to ask.

What do you think GD? Ganoderma applanatum Artists Conk ? perhaps.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Possibly a Cortinarius?
QUOTE]
Possibly a Field Blewit Lepista Personata ? Geoff Dann is probably the man to ask.

Sorry...missed this one. Looks like Cortinarius purpurascens to me. And the white one is either a wood mushroom or a poisonous Amanita - need to know what colour the gills are.

 

[xylaria]

On a bike ride today I found these growing in Beech leaf litter at the bottom of a bank - reference to Phillips makes me think they might be Pseduocraterellus Undulatus - they are like an oatmeal coloured Chanterelle with a nice fruity smell. Any other suggestions.?

clitocybe gibba, the name has probably changed, but it can turn up this early. You have a very erratic specium, so i am not too sure. But there are quite regular ones in the background. I would of picked more than one in this instance as well.

 

[Harvestman]

Sorry...missed this one. Looks like Cortinarius purpurascens to me. And the white one is either a wood mushroom or a poisonous Amanita - need to know what colour the gills are.

Thank goodness for that! If I thought I'd found a blewitt and left it behind :yikes:
I've seen Cortinarius purpuracens, and that was what I thought it was, but I really don't know the Cortinarius group at all.

I didn't check the gill colour on the white one, as a) I thought it might be an Amanita, b) there was only one, so I wasn't going to take it anyway, and c) it looked a bit tatty.

Thank you.

 

[NetFrog]

I wish people wouldn't do this. You don't really have any idea what these mushrooms are, and you've picked all of them hoping they are edible, which you would be pointless if you couldn't then come here and post them to get an ID.

They don't look anything like P. undulatus or anything else in the same family of mushrooms. I am not sure what they actually are, which is precisely why I would not personally have picked them all. Probably some sort of Clitocybe. If it is C. nebularis then it is completely out of season.

Sorry Geoff but I disagree and think you were rather harsh. We were all beginners at one stage and there is nothing wrong (in my opinion) with picking fruiting bodies for the purposes of learning more on a subject that you are interested in. As "shroomers" we are not picking excessive amounts for identification purposes and certainly not enough to disrupt the spread any particular species which in most cases are well in excess of the human population of the UK and probably the world as an entirety x by several million if not billions.. I do not think the original OP was asking purely for edibility but was instead curious as to the species of mushroom he had found and was curious to its identification which I most certainly was when I first got interested. And in my opinion this is a good start and beginning to the fungi world for any beginner or intermediate shroomer. Instead he should be congratulated on showing an interest instead of getting a dressing down from someone whom knows a little more than himself.

Usually as this point I would apoligise for being a little too forward but in this case I do believe that you are shedding the wrong light and making people feel insecure about something which should be shared and explored. We should be promoting this activity instead of putting people down for getting involved.

For anyone else reading - the best way to learn about "mushrooms" is to explore the countryside, take photos of them in their surroundings and then take them home for identification purposes and spore samples. Further to that if you have a local group you will usually find that they have labs where you can further understand the individual properties of species. However not everyone wants to get that in depth and are simply just interested in learning a little more.

Again, I apologise Geoff but I think the way you came forward there was not ever going to put this activity in a good light. It should be shared by all, from beginner to expert.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Sorry Geoff but I disagree and think you were rather harsh. We were all beginners at one stage and there is nothing wrong (in my opinion) with picking fruiting bodies for the purposes of learning more on a subject that you are interested in. As "shroomers" we are not picking excessive amounts for identification purposes and certainly not enough to disrupt the spread any particular species which in most cases are well in excess of the human population of the UK and probably the world as an entirety x by several million if not billions.. I do not think the original OP was asking purely for edibility but was instead curious as to the species of mushroom he had found and was curious to its identification which I most certainly was when I first got interested. And in my opinion this is a good start and beginning to the fungi world for any beginner or intermediate shroomer. Instead he should be congratulated on showing an interest instead of getting a dressing down from someone whom knows a little more than himself.

Usually as this point I would apoligise for being a little too forward but in this case I do believe that you are shedding the wrong light and making people feel insecure about something which should be shared and explored. We should be promoting this activity instead of putting people down for getting involved.

For anyone else reading - the best way to learn about "mushrooms" is to explore the countryside, take photos of them in their surroundings and then take them home for identification purposes and spore samples. Further to that if you have a local group you will usually find that they have labs where you can further understand the individual properties of species. However not everyone wants to get that in depth and are simply just interested in learning a little more.

Again, I apologise Geoff but I think the way you came forward there was not ever going to put this activity in a good light. It should be shared by all, from beginner to expert.

OK...I think we may have to agree to disagree on this. My views are being influenced by the fact that I walked straight into the middle of a war zone when I started identifying mushrooms as a part-time job. Well, before then actually. I identified a mushroom as edible on the website of Wild About Britain and ended up getting banned when I questioned their hardline policy of refusing to answer questions about edibility or talk about foraging. Upon further investigation I discovered that there was a major dispute going on (involving the police, and close to the point of litigation) between the Association of British Fungus Groups and John Wright / River Cottage. This caused me major problems personally, because I'm both interested in foraging for mushrooms and care deeply about ecological protection. I've also spent the last two years identifying mushrooms for people on wildmushroomsonline, and we've had numerous instances of people posting pictures of rare fungi they have picked in hope they were edible, including one Amanita strobiliformis, which is known as the "solitary amanita" because of its habit of only fruiting in singletons. I've never seen in the flesh. The problem is this: nine times out of ten when somebody picks all of them, or picks a load of something they don't know what is, it is going to be something common and no harm done. One time in twenty it will be something rare, and every now and then it will be A. strobiliformis or something even rarer.

I don't want to rain on anyone's party, but I also don't want any part of encouraging people to pick fungi when they don't know what they are. That gets foragers a bad name.

 

[NetFrog]

I'm sorry if I appeared harsh there Geoff and I have seen the fall out before in various forums and with the TV productions and mass forays that are held by TV personalities for monetary gain. However, everyone has to start somewhere and we are all beginners at some point down the line. The like of HFW (river cottage) have gotten extremely bad names for themselves for picking areas dry and charging large amounts of money to do so. I think for the normal person simple procedures should be encouraged though, and one of them is to photograph, pick and spore. These are surely the first steps to identification as opposed to picking on mass just because it is an edible type.

In this scenario I believe the OP had at least a few bases covered, (pick and take home). The next learning step is to spore and then obviously get the use of some lab based equipment if they are particularly serious, not everyone wants to go that in depth though and are happy with identifying a dozen or so and asking for rough ID on forums which is perfectly acceptable.

From your explanation I do understand what you are saying, but I think maybe as I said you were a little harsh and this activity should be encouraged as you were one time.

 

[xylaria]

The best way of IDing fungi is picking it, and taking a spore print. Spore prints colours is how the various family groups are organised.

Geoff you were banned from WAB for misIDing a plate full of mycena pura and then eating them, then a few weeks later saying they were good for eating because you were fine, Weren't you?

I stay far away from mushroom politics. Nations that harvest far more fungi then we do have more fungi, a better map of what species are found, and are generally better educated about fungi. The most basic tennet of bushcraft is living close to nature, when "experts" understand that humans are part of system not just simple observers to it, the study of fungi will be transformed.

There was more to river cottage incident than either party says. There was some politic thing behind the scenes.

 

[xylaria]

a here we go first thread from wab
it is notable the amount of speciums of mycena pura/rosa that have been picked. It is simerlar number to what murcerykev picked for id.
and here is the second

The thing with people that are really into fringe hobbies like fungi , is that they are often scoring high points on the aspergic scale. Very geeky people can be really wierd about their subject, and very concrete in their opinions. The ABFG view of foragers reminds of me this.