hello everyone :) firstly, many thanks to the people that responded to my first post about my dog, she's recovered perfectly well and she's doing fine (although i now keep a much closer eye on what she's eating while we're out walking!) secondly, i've gotten quite interested in identifying mushrooms from my local area, but since i'm not yet very good at this, i thought i'd ask for opinions here on what these three species are. the third one, although the picture isn't great quality, is a really lovely shade of purple. any thoughts?
Well, I can't help with species names, but here's a few suggestions for you: 1: If you want to identify mushrooms or have someone else identify them, dig them up instead of pulling them out of the ground. This is because the mycelium can be important for identification, and the mycelium is sometimes deep in the ground. 2: Unless you plan to keep mushrooms as specimens, leave them in nature. Photograph them in their natural habitat. Habitat can actually be very important for identification. If, however, you are going to keep specimens, then I recommend reading this: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/herbarium.html
i don't know if you intended it that way, but frankly that response has really irritated me. i didn't come here for a lecture, thank you. i was simply walking in the woods, i didn't go out specifically to photograph mushrooms, i just happened to find a couple and couldn't find the answers to what they were online. your first point, on mycelium, is gladly taken on board though, and thank you for the suggestion.
Sorry, I didn't mean to insult or bore you with how much I wrote. Really, I don't intend to make any enemies, I just get carried away sometimes.
like RPB...i'm the same way.......many of us don't realize that when u pull these they could actually end the entire life cycle of wonderful little treasures. when i first started photographing mushrooms i was hacking them all out of the natural environment not knowing? that their spore wouldn't then get a chance to spread out. please don't feel insulted..........with time many of us have learned the 'proper' ways that others of us never knew before! :o) .........now i carry a small note book to take notes in...a pocket camera (sometimes u can find really great ones for cheap!) and another notebook to take leaf pressings/samples of nearby trees. some other great things to help are to note if they have 'odors'....if u see 'milk' drops on them...what kind of critters might be eating from them or if u can see any sort of spore on the ground around them? i'm fascinated by u'r purple one....i've only found one this year of one that sadly is toxic but still gorgeous! happy shroom hunting! :o)
Ya, that purple one looks really cool! I haven't found any logical identification for this one, but I found this: http://travel.mongabay.com/pix/peru/manu-Manu_1023_1974.html , but I doubt that you live in Peru :P
Those were beautiful! Sadly..no..I don't live in Peru but have always wanted to visit especially just to see the flora/fauna that's there. This mushroom I'm showing below I actually found a couple weeks ago all by it'self. It'd already gone thru some degration though, sadly.
If there is a fine, whitish band on the gill-edge, they have a seperable gelatinous pellicle, turn blue when bruised, and the spore print is purblish brown to black (that is, if you put a cap on white paper, leave it for an hour and then look underneath it and see what color the spores that fell from it are), then they're probably from the psilocybe genus. As for the exact species --- if all of the preceding is true, then I would hazard a guess that the one on the left could (COULD) be psilocybe pelliculosa, the middle one might be psilocybe semilanceata especially if it was found growing in grass, and the one on the right I don't have a clue. If the suspected psilocybe pelliculosa's spores are subellipsoid to subovoid, 9-13 by 5-7 microns with 4-spored basidia, absent pleurocystidia, 17-36 by 4-7.5 micron, fusiform to lance-shaped cheilocystidia with an elongated neck 1.5-2 microns thick, then it's a safe bet that it is in fact pelliculosa. ;)
