• Location: New South Wales
• Time of year: Spring (very wet)
• Description of growth medium: Soil and bark
• Description of location: Feild
• Surrounding flora: Grass
• Recent weather: Very wet, heavy rain
• Cap characteristics: Orange/Chestnut, older ones are slightly paler. Small vertical stripes, tiny yellow freckles
• Textures: Smooth, a little rubbery
• Spore print characteristics: Younger ones mostly cream, darkening to Brown/Purple on older ones
• Characteristics of the stipe: Long, no ring, pale and thin, flexible
• Characteristics of the gills: Unattached

Working on uploading more images, Lemmy is having issues 😅

Lots of different mushrooms pop up in our yard this time of year. This was the first time we saw one quite like this. It grew to a pretty large size for what we tend to see around here.

My reasoning for this being A. Adonis: To start with it's a pink mycenoid mushroom of which there are three documented species in the PNW.

It can't be Mycena Monticola because it wasn't found at a high enough elevation for that species (they only grow at over 2000 feet hence the name Monticola meaning "mountain dwelling").

The gills are not marginate (having a different color on the edges) which rules out the other pink species Mycena Rosella.

That leaves us with A. Adonis.

They were found in mid-november in the Salish Coast region of Cascadia. They were growing out of woodchips composed of a mixture of western hemlock (majority), and western red cedar.

Side view of one full mature specimen:

A group with a sample of the substrate (the cap appears to be umbonate):

A closeup side view, and internal view of the stem (it appears to be hollow):

Cross section of the gills — they appear to be adnate, or sub-decurrent:

Underside of view of the gills:

Spore print (first on white background (the split is due to two halves), second on a black background):

Examples specimens once dried:

Examples of the colony, and the location/substrate in which it was growing:

My initial thought was that they were Psilocybe cyanescens, but that's pretty much completely been confirmed as incorrect [1][2][3][4][5]. The current running theory is that they are Hypholoma dispersum[2][3]. What do you think they are?

Cross-posts:

• https://sh.itjust.works/post/28348065
• https://sh.itjust.works/post/28348063
• https://sh.itjust.works/post/28348066

I kept a Lion's mane petri dish stored in the fridge for well over a year.

I decided to make an attempt at refreshing it by transferring into fresh petri dishes. After a week I noticed some strong mycelium growth.

After inoculating a grain jar with one of the cultures, I decided to have a look under the microscope to double check, just in case.. And that's when I noticed a morphology that I had never seen before. It looked nothing like Lion's Mane. The full length of the mycelium is covered with these pegs with a sphere at the end.

After some searching, I am almost convinced that this is a Verticillium sp. - a new contaminant for me!

I then checked all of the petri dishes and they are all this same fungus. So, time to get a new fresh culture 😅

Species is something like Subcana. Grey Mycena are hard to differentiate.

I see these on the disc golf course all the time.

These have beautiful reddish brown pores on the bottom

Edit: After a bit of research and asking around, it seems that this is likely Cystolepiota bucknallii

Hi! I came across this strange little thing last week and have been struggling to ID it. I'm hoping that maybe someone here can help.

It was found growing in the soil of a mixed forrest, lots of birch, elder, and larch, 10km or so north of the German alps.

Maybe the photo isn't super clear, but the stem is not hollow. And one very distinct feature is that it stank like gasoline or hot plastic. The smell was strong and lingered on my hands long after handling it.

Thank you!

I found this textbook Amanita muscaria while searching for Lactarius deliciosus. There was a huge patch of them. We also found some Tricholoma equestre and a bunch of Russula

More pictures available if needed. I broke a few open that were in rougher shape and they are solid white and spongy all the way through. Found in open woods in West Kentucky.

Thinking about frying these up and seeing how they taste but want a bit more assurance that I'm not taking a huge risk doing so. I couldn't find these in my National Audubon Society Field Guide so I'm a bit reluctant to take the chance.

Each one is no bigger than a couple inches.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3466560

by Sofia Moutinho

• Mycorrhizal fungi live in symbiosis with plants, providing them with nutrients necessary to thrive and potentially playing a key part in preserving threatened species.
• Although research into mycorrhizae has so far been sparse in Latin America, efforts are gaining momentum, with experts studying how the fungi could help save the Colombian black oak, an endangered, endemic species.
• In Huila, Colombia, local communities are successfully working with researchers on a black oak restoration project using seeds “inoculated” with fungi.

“All this forest above us, and we are here looking down,” says Corrales, a fungi ecologist and expedition leader at the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), a nonprofit research organization mapping fungi worldwide. For the last two years, the group has been searching in Colombia’s black oak forests for mycorrhizae, a type of fungi that establishes a unique symbiosis with plants that’s fundamental to keeping forests alive.

Most plants worldwide are associated with these fungi. Mycorrhizae grow around roots, forming vast networks of thin, cotton-like filaments that extend into the lower soil levels and reach the litter fall. Through this system, the fungi can break down organic matter, such as dry leaves, and even mine minerals in rocks and deliver water and essential nutrients directly to plants’ roots. In return, the roots provide the fungi with sugars, essential for their survival.

Full Article

Found in Cascadia/PNW in mid-August.

If it is indeed chicken of the woods (ie laetiporus), I'm curious as to which species.

Cross-posts:

• https://sh.itjust.works/post/23697229