Amateur Mycophile

I am a recent college graduate, who likes to hike and now has a lot of time on my hands since I have yet to get a job. When I find mushrooms hanging around the neighborhood or elsewhere, I pick them and try to figure out what they are in a scientific manner. I have David Aurora's "Mushrooms Demystified" to help me on my journey through mycology. It's a great way for me to nerd out on science, even though biology wasn't even my major (psych was!).

[amateurmycophile]

Radical Mycologist Trains Mushroom to Remediate Cigarette Butts

Cigarette filters are the most commonly littered waste product in the world. Last year, nearly 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette filters were thrown into the globe's landfills and ecosystems. That's ...

[erieforage]

Silky Rosegill (Volvariella bombycina). Very cool first one I have fond that is in this good of shape. Edible and good, but not for beginners because it looks a little like amanita.

[amateurmycophile]

What are some of the main differences between this and an amanita? 

[amateurmycophile]

Corn Silk Inocybe

Sorry its been a week since my last post! Unfortunately, I don't have access to my nice macro camera at the moment, so we had to resort to phone pics of this specimen that we found yesterday (8/7) under a conifer in my backyard - 3 in one small grouping (see the pin?!) and another close by. I believe them to be Inocybes, possibly the "Corn Silk Inocybe" or a close variation like I. fastigiata. In Mushrooms Demystified, it only listed 9 out of the 400 different types in North America alone, so they could be any variation of an Inocybe. Most are very, very similar to one another though and often have sweet or mild odors and a lack of bruising.  

As you can see, these mushrooms are pretty small with silky, fibrillose conical caps that are brown in the center and lighten towards the caps' edges. The free gills range from white (infant) to charcoal purple/brown with white edges (mature). Inocybes are known for these features specifically. 

Above is a good picture of the central stem without a volva, which shows a lack of veil/annulus. Like stated previously, Inocybes are known for their white fringed gills, which you can kind of see above. Below is a better picture where you can see them more clearly. These mushies are known to leave a brownish spore print. 

These little mushies (Inocybes) have been described not only as LBMs (Little Brown Mushrooms), but also BUMs (Boring Ubiquitous Mushrooms) because they rarely come in other colors (except occasionally lilac). The only reason that they are of relevance to the mycological hiker or mycophile is because they are thought to be more poisonous than Amantias, which contain the toxic compound muscarine. They possibly contain more of that compound than their deadly friends, which usually results in death around 12 hours after ingestion via kidney failure.

Some people believe that muscarine is hallucinogenic, but not in the same sense that Psilocybes ("magic mushrooms" that contain the compounds psilocybin and psilocin) are. Muscarine apparently brings upon a "trip" in small doses with quite unpleasant side effects (vomiting, pain). I have read that shaman used to drink the urine of people who had eaten a mushroom with muscarine in order to have the experience of the trip without the unpleasant side effects. It is not noted often for its recreational use, however, because most people who are into stuff that stick with mushrooms that produce psilocybin as it is supposedly a more pleasant trip (if you like that sort of thing). Plus, people don't really want to risk the whole death side effect thing too... 

Reminder - do not eat wild mushrooms without being positive of what type it is. It can be quite dangerous or unpleasant (as explained above). 

PS. Why is it that I can only find poisonous mushies in my area?! Sigh. 

[laughingsquid]

[amateurmycophile]

laughingsquid:

Mushroom Death Suit Consumes Body After Human Wearing It Dies

This is pretty cool! A scientist is trying to create a suit to help bodies decompose naturally using flesh eating fungus. Mycology at its finest. 

[amateurmycophile]

Old Man of the Woods

It is quite unfortunate that I am having either a super bad sinus infection or crazy allergies because when I picked this mushroom from the moss it was growing out of on our hike, I could not smell it. I was then informed by my boyfriend that I was holding a specimen that smelled like FECES and DEATH. Needless to say, no one wanted me to bring it home, despite its distinctive look; thus, we took two pictures of it while we were out on our phone and then tossed it.

I believe it was quite an old specimen, as it seemed to be decayed due to the lack of any substantial boletus flesh underneath the cap. So we obviously cannot make a positive ID, but because of its shaggy scales on the cap, we believe it to be part of the Strobilomyces genus. 

Although these pictures are not fantastic nor was the specimen, it is unlike any other that I have encountered thus far! 

[amateurmycophile]

This link is to a single lecture, rather than a class series about the "weird world of mushrooms" by a guest speaker at Cornell. Again, I have yet to listen to it, but I plan on it! 

[amateurmycophile]

After reading an article on Hello Giggles about expanding one's knowledge post graduation via iTunesU, it reminded me of what I am doing - expanding my knowledge of mycology! So I decided to see if iTunesU had a lecture series on mycology AND THEY DO! Check out the link above. No idea if it's fabulous or not, but I'll def be checking it out. Here's the course description of MLT 230 - Parasitology & Mycology taught by Ruth Negley: "A study of the medically important protozoa, helminth worms, fungi, & yeast. Emphasized are names, human infection, diagnostic information used to identify these microorganisms, and treatment."

[simonebotany-deactivated2012060]

Question Answered

[amateurmycophile]

simonebotany:

If someone more enlightened in mycology basics could explain to me the hypothesized evoluationary function(s) of toxicity and hallucinogenic properties of certain mushrooms, I would much appreciate. 

Also, I would like to know whether the little slugs and bugs that frequently make their homes inside caps and stalks of mushrooms are affected by the toxicity and hallucinogenic properties.

As for the evolutionary functions, I am kind of unsure. I know that their hallucinogenic properties helped them spread because they were picked for that very reason - shamanism. When the mushrooms were picked and transported because of this unique property, they were able to spread their spores. Also I read there are the Johnny Appleseeds of the world that like to spread the wonders of hallucinogens. There is one picture in this book that I thought was quite amusing. There's a woman with several giant spore prints on a hat. If you walk through crowds, the spores will transport themselves to so many different areas via each person they attach to. 

As for the bugs - I read in Mushrooms Demystified by David Aurora that not all bugs react to toxins in the way that humans do. They process them differently or not at all. There's a myth that if there are bugs in it then it's safe to eat. NOT TRUE! They don't necessarily metabolize the toxins in the same way or could just be using the mushroom as a home, rather than as a food source. 

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me questions on my tumblr (amateurmycophile). I may be an amateur, but I do a lot of reading! 

[amateurmycophile]

We went on another short hike in the national park today (7/20). Found a few specimens that I wanted to look over even though I have so many to study from this weekend. I just couldn't help myself! I haven't been able to totally figure out what all of these are but my best guesses are that I've got from left to right: Suillus, Boletus (?), and definitely a small Death Cap... the last three are either - Agaricus (?) or Russula (?). The question marks indicate that I'm not really sure, but that I'm researching. I'm pretty sure though that the first one is Suillus and the third is an Amanita. I'll hopefully be posting about these along with some from my last pick! Follow me (amateurmycophile) to read my posts about my adventure as a noobie mycologist! 

[amateurmycophile]

Orange Amanita muscaria

This was my first brightly colored mushroom!! Quite exciting. It was found along the trail on our hike on 7/16 in a national park near a river. You can see how small they are in relation to my finger and to the rest of the mushrooms in the previous picture. I believe that they are a variety of Amanita muscaria. The usual warts, have actually washed off, but you'll be able to see them on the bottom of the stem. *That's what makes Amanitas easily confuse-able with edibles that do not have the veil.* Those plus the annulus are Amanita traits of a universal veil in its early stages. 

These little guys barely left a spore print, but what I did see from them was white. All of those lead me to believe  that they are A. muscaria. So cute, but so deadly!

[amateurmycophile]

We went on a hike yesterday and came across ALL these mushrooms! I'll try to write about some of them this week. :) EXCITING!

[amateurmycophile]

Thanks to Martha Stewart, lulz, here's a guide to spore printing. Or else you can just read my last posts and it talks about how/why I did it. I do not "fixate" my prints though. This means if I potentially wanted to grow any of the ones that I find, I couldn't. If I want to use them for stationary or decoration, then fixation would be nice. Otherwise, put it on one side of a piece of paper. When the print is done, you can fold the paper over and tape it shut so that the spores won't get in and neither will any other contaminants. 

[amateurmycophile]

Poison Pax on a trail

This beauty, or the Paxillus involutus, is quite large, so we included a picture below of it next to the hands of my  boyfriend and I. I have quite small hands, so I did not want to solely use mine as a frame of reference. 

We found it on 7/12/11 at the base of a tree on a national park trail in the South Eastern US. It's gills are decurrent, meaning that they extend downward, and are a brownish yellow. It's stem was difficult to remove from the ground, but once I did, I could see that it was quite small, maybe 1/6 of the diameter of the cap. It's located centrally, solely as a base, even though the mushroom appeared to be growing off the tree. 

As you can see on some of the gills, this mushroom bruises a brown color. You can also see that dark brown color along the edge of the rusty brown spore print where some of the mushroom decayed overnight. I used smaller pieces of the cap that could fit underneath a moistened glass in order to create partial spore prints. I did it on both red and white paper in case the print tended to be on the lighter side. I do wish I had black construction paper to do it on because occasionally, a print could be pink or reddish, and it would be difficult to identify. 

The cap of this mushroom is dingy brown, inrolled, and depressed. Inrolled indicates that the edges of the cap curl under; while depression means that the cat is indented, rather than flat or pointed. This is how it got one of its nicknames, the Inrolled Pax. 

The pale yellow flesh is not corky, but rather is meaty like you would expect a mushroom to be. It did have quite an acrid smell. I've found that this mushroom is quite dangerous as it is the one that is most commonly mistaken as safe by Europeans who come to the US. Apparently, the sole instance in which a bonafide mycologist died due to mushroom poisoning can be attributed to this mushroom in 1944. This is where it got its other nickname, The Poison Pax. 

[amateurmycophile]

Golf Course Amanita

This was found in a large group on some woodchips in a North Georgia golf course on 7/9/11 by my boyfriend, who has taken to learning mycology with me. I have identified it as the Amanita citrina (=A. mappa), related to the Western US species A. porphyria or the "Booted Amanita," which is thicker and meatier than this Eastern US specimen. The book says, "EDIBILITY: Poisonous?? Do not experiment!" I would say this is a wise choice as most Amanitas are toxic and can easily be confused with the edible ones. 

I identified this as an Amanita because although it does not have a volva, it does have wart like marks on its cap, which is indicative of a universal veil. The addition of the annulus also confirms that as well.

The gills are white and free and left a white spore print, which only confirms my findings. 

[amateurmycophile]

Agaricus xanthodermus?

So I found three of these popping out of a lawn on the side of the road on my street today.  It is possible that it was near conifers, as my area is thick with them, but it is also possible that it wasn't. They were in a nicely trimmed lawn. I believe them to be from the Agaricus family, which is indicative of their gills. 

The gills are free and brown. The central stalk is obviously white and does not bruise, or does so quite slowly. When dissected, it is white and fleshy, without stains. On its exterior it contains an intermediate annulus, which means that a partial veil was present; however, there is no vulva at its base. 

The cap, as you can see, is a dark yellow-ish beige in the center then it fades to white and then to a brownish-black color towards the edges. Over time, as the mushrooms have been sitting on the table, the black circumference of the cap has continually gotten bigger, expanding into the center. 

I did the spore print on both white and red paper, in case the print was white. It was actually a smoky-black, but as I am new to this it could technically be "chocolatey-brown". The mushrooms has a mild fungal odor and did not seem to me to be too acrid, but then again it could be to my amateur status that led me to mistake the faint phenolic odor. Thus it could be in the general Agaricus (edible), Hortenses (edible), or Xanthodermati (poisonous). I ruled out 4 other subgroups due to its lack of rufescence (turning red) and the form of its annulus. I found some cleaner in the house that I could use to perform a KOH test. When it touched the mushroom, the flesh became yellow indicating that it is positive for KOH, which overrules the Agaricus and Hortenses, leaving the Xanthodermati. Although they could potentially be A. osecanus, or Giant Horse Mushrooms, because they are supposed to stain yellow with KOH; I want to say it is the A. xanthodermus because it looks more like this one than the other in the book's pictures. When I googled pictures of this species, none looked like what was in the book OR what I had picked. Oh well. 

Thoughts on my find? Disagreements?

[amateurmycophile]

Red and Edible??

So with this specimen, we cannot say for 100% certainty what type of mycelium it is because it did not leave a spore print on white or red paper; however, we have quite an educated guess. It was a little malformed. I'm not sure from what, but it could be because I found it growing out from the bottom of a rock in moss on the side of the road. We know this one is a bolete because of its porous cap. At first glance, one would believe that it is poisonous because we have been taught that red is the color of danger, yet almost all boletes are edible. 

We believe the species below to be the Boletus subglabripes. 

As you can see, the shroom is quite red, which is more indicative of the southern types of these species. 

Additionally, when separated from the stem, both the cap and stem bruise a dark blue-green. The inside of the stem also exhibits the red external surface color as well as the yellow pore color. 

[amateurmycophile]

UPDATE: Roadside Death Cap

The specimen I mentioned in my last article is IN FACT a Death Cap. I did the spore print on a piece of blue paper and I can faintly see the white spores splayed on the sheet. The reason that it is not a very thick spore print could be because the mycelia had already released most of its mature spores or the paper I used is too lightly colored. Either way, I don't think it will photograph well, so I found this one online that is an example of what it should look like...

Thanks to Mamakopp's flickr page for this!