The Ultimate "What is this Fungi?" thread.

[daveO]

Any ideas? Growing on a large hay bale that farmers have helpfully dumped in the middle of the lane.

 

[Iona]

Hi there,

demographic, I'd love it if you could post a picture of the full fruiting body of your Sparassis, I think you may have been right the first time...

S. crispa is more likely to have the toothed margin, thinner lobes, and I've had it looking very much like yours, illustrated on the right of my photo below. I've linked a photo of Sparasis spathulata as well to illustrate the thicker flatter margined lobes, which are usually zoned, and in the new 2012 Buczacki Collins it's listed as growing on Broad leaf trees (Usually sweet chestnut, beech and oak) in italic, and it states that 'host species is the surest means of identifying these fungi'...

Cheers,

Iona

 

[fungi2bwith]

They look like wood blewits to me.

 

[Iona]

Any ideas? Growing on a large hay bale that farmers have helpfully dumped in the middle of the lane.

Lepista nuda - wood blewit for me... interesting substrate!

If in doubt it should smell perfumed, and have a pale pink spore print.

Iona

 

[Iona]

Having tried all of the otions on the thread telling you how to upload photos, until I can get a hand, I'll link to these...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43456575@N03/

Iona

 

[Geoff Dann]

Lepista nuda - wood blewit for me... interesting substrate!

If in doubt it should smell perfumed, and have a pale pink spore print.

Iona

Could be Clitocybe (was Lepista) sordida. I've found that growing on hay before.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Hi there,

demographic, I'd love it if you could post a picture of the full fruiting body of your Sparassis, I think you may have been right the first time...

S. crispa is more likely to have the toothed margin, thinner lobes, and I've had it looking very much like yours, illustrated on the right of my photo below. I've linked a photo of Sparasis spathulata as well to illustrate the thicker flatter margined lobes, which are usually zoned, and in the new 2012 Buczacki Collins it's listed as growing on Broad leaf trees (Usually sweet chestnut, beech and oak) in italic, and it states that 'host species is the surest means of identifying these fungi'...

Cheers,

Iona

S. spathulata:

associated with wood, parasitic on soil at the base of broad-leaf and coniferous trees

I've found S. spathulata on both, and it is usually not that hard to tell them apart. IMHO. At least..it is pretty obvious that some things are S. crispa, and pretty obvious that some things are S. spathulata, at least if you've got the whole thing to look at.

 

[Iona]

You were very adamant on this particular one, without the whole thing to look at, and it looks nothing like it to me... just an open S. crispa... and the book I was quoting was much newer and takes into account more recent info. And, looking at the photos I've posted again, and the first photo demographic posted, which would you say looked closer?

Iona

 

[Iona]

Could be Clitocybe (was Lepista) sordida. I've found that growing on hay before.

Could be (still) Lepista sordida, but the colour and stature suggest nuda...

 

[Geoff Dann]

Could be (still) Lepista sordida, but the colour and stature suggest nuda...

Are you challenging the proposed relocation of Lepista to Clitocybe?

 

[Geoff Dann]

You were very adamant on this particular one, without the whole thing to look at, and it looks nothing like it to me... just an open S. crispa... and the book I was quoting was much newer and takes into account more recent info. And, looking at the photos I've posted again, and the first photo demographic posted, which would you say looked closer?

Iona

I think I'm getting bored of this game quite quickly.

 

[Iona]

I think I'm getting bored of this game quite quickly.

No game, genuine question...

 

[demographic]

Hi there,

demographic, I'd love it if you could post a picture of the full fruiting body of your Sparassis, I think you may have been right the first time...

S. crispa is more likely to have the toothed margin, thinner lobes, and I've had it looking very much like yours, illustrated on the right of my photo below. I've linked a photo of Sparasis spathulata as well to illustrate the thicker flatter margined lobes, which are usually zoned, and in the new 2012 Buczacki Collins it's listed as growing on Broad leaf trees (Usually sweet chestnut, beech and oak) in italic, and it states that 'host species is the surest means of identifying these fungi'...

Cheers,

Iona

These are the only photos I took of it I'm afraid.

It was definitely growing at the foot of a coniferous tree but to be honest I'm not that good on my coniferous tree IDs, I'm far and away better on my deciduous tree IDs

 

[Iona]

These are the only photos I took of it I'm afraid.




It was definitely growing at the foot of a coniferous tree but to be honest I'm not that good on my coniferous tree IDs, I'm far and away better on my deciduous tree IDs

No worries,

I completely relate about the coniferous trees, I found a really rare fungus this year, (Lepiota cortinarius) and when asked for the records what tree it was under the answer was, erm... a piney one?! Cue a trip back to identify it as a Blue Atlas Cedar, incidentally the place where I found my best ever Cauliflower fungus, All 6 kg of it!

Iona

 

[Geoff Dann]

Hi there,

demographic, I'd love it if you could post a picture of the full fruiting body of your Sparassis, I think you may have been right the first time...

S. crispa is more likely to have the toothed margin, thinner lobes, and I've had it looking very much like yours, illustrated on the right of my photo below. I've linked a photo of Sparasis spathulata as well to illustrate the thicker flatter margined lobes, which are usually zoned, and in the new 2012 Buczacki Collins it's listed as growing on Broad leaf trees (Usually sweet chestnut, beech and oak) in italic, and it states that 'host species is the surest means of identifying these fungi'...

Cheers,

Iona

Right. Sparassis spathulata is the latest name (synonym) for S. laminosa (according to Michael Jordan's book.)

The new book you quote says spathulata grows on chestnut (Castanea), beech (Fagus) and oak (Quercus.)

However, according to Andreas Gminder (I am guessing you know who Andreas is), last night:

I'm not sure wether you speak about the same species that in continental Europe is known as Sparassis laminosa (or S. brevipes or S. nemecii)? If so, I can confirm that what we call S. laminosa is grwoing definitely with Abies [FIR] as main host, besides that with Picea [SPRUCE]. Then there are very rare collections of a laminosa-like species with Fagus and Quercus, but it is not sure whether this is the same Sas . laminosa on Abies or if it is better called S. brevipes (or S. nemecii?).

In other words, the experts are not in agreement, but Andreas Gminder appears to be going further than Michael Jordan (who says they grow on both) and saying that the "laminosa-like species" (the ones with longer, flatter blades) grow mainly on conifers, rather than deciduous trees, and that the species growing on deciduous trees may be a different sub-species. In fact from the more general discussion I got the impression that the genus Sparassis is going to be re-arranged or split into more (sub-)species than are currently recognised.

I think this is what it means, anyway.

 

[Iona]

Yes I know Andreas through WAB, he helped me out on the above mentioned Lepiota cortinarius a while back... Did you show him the pics? I'm still fairly sure it's S. crispa, and to me what Andreas has said there is further reason not to say things like:

'The picture you posted is of Sparassis spathulata (got the spelling right this time.) It's in Michael Jordan's Encyclopedia of fungi of Britain and Europe. It is not S. brevipes and it is not S. crispa. I have explained the differences to you. I'm sorry it's not in your books.'

Not often it's that cut and dried... And it's just nicer to have a conversation with the poster about your thinking and reasoning I think. I'd be happy to run the pics past some other Mycologists if Demographic wants to pin it down.

Iona

Right. Sparassis spathulata is the latest name (synonym) for S. laminosa (according to Michael Jordan's book.)

The new book you quote says spathulata grows on chestnut (Castanea), beech (Fagus) and oak (Quercus.)

However, according to Andreas Gminder (I am guessing you know who Andreas is), last night:



In other words, the experts are not in agreement, but Andreas Gminder appears to be going further than Michael Jordan (who says they grow on both) and saying that the "laminosa-like species" (the ones with longer, flatter blades) grow mainly on conifers, rather than deciduous trees, and that the species growing on deciduous trees may be a different sub-species. In fact from the more general discussion I got the impression that the genus Sparassis is going to be re-arranged or split into more (sub-)species than are currently recognised.

I think this is what it means, anyway.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Yes I showed him the pictures, and no, I don't want to get involved in ego/status battles with any other persons on this board.

 

[demographic]

I never got the chance to go back to it yet so no better pictures I'm afraid. I had to go to a mates house to jo a few odd jobs before he sells the place this weekend.

I'm just chuffed that out of both possible choices that they are both edible.

Just as a matter of interest though, what's the spore colour of spathulata? I never took a spore print of the one I saw and as I said its not in any of my fungi books I don't know what it is.

 

[Iona]

Just a conversation from where I'm sitting Geoff...

Iona

 

[Iona]

The same as S. crispa demographic. Yeah, lovely edibles, and they have the benefit of being such a large fungus that one can remove only part of the fruiting body, allowing the rest to sporulate unharmed... It dries well too

Iona