In looking through one of my guides, to me this resembles a Collybia. But the ones in the guide have longer stems and I think there are probably several sharing this appearance. Any help with the id would be greatly appreciated. Without doing a spore print, I know I'm eliminating some helpful info. But I hope this view shows all aspects other than that and will be useful. Thanks.
Unfortunately, without more information....it IS a guessing game here. It could be a type of Gymnopilus...a Collybia (but without the ring)...a Gallerina...a Psathyrella....Sulfur Tuft..........
Thanks very much for your help, C.Wick. I guess I'm going to have to start taking spore prints if I want to get closer to the correct IDs. Aside from the prints, is there anything else I'm missing here that would aid in the ID? Thanks.
One thing that helps here...is that these have 'rings' on the stems. A definate help in ID'ing... Sometimes the caps are smooth...some may have a slight rough edge to them...and some of the younger ones may even show 'scaling' or ruffness that smooths out with age... Odor...I LOVE to smell mushrooms! Often, if you can detect a distinct smell...like bleach or licorice, that can really help as well. Color of gills....or are the gills running down the stem...are they far apart or close together... Sometimes too...although I see not in this case...if you can tell what sort of wood they're on? Like...is the area this was found prominent in Oak, Ash, Maple, Pine.......Sometimes for me? I just look up ID's located on Oak and can find things faster that way if I know it IS Oak. lol There really are soooo many ways to help ID...and sometimes many of us forget to go thru the list that'll help us (I'm horribly bad at this sometimes!). If you can get back and collect a couple here? Try the spore print and maybe a nice image of the undersides....I love to see gills especially...
Thanks! I won't be able to get back to these until, if the weather holds, Saturday and I'm sure they won't have lasted since we've been having frosts again. But I'll remember your advice...and I should print out the ID list Frog posted to carry with me. BTW, there were lots of maples, the road was lined with them, so this might be a maple log but hard to be sure. Thanks again.
I support your comments about the info needed for more positive IDs, but I'd like to add, without making a positive ID :-), that I think it really looks like a Galerina: The stains on the gills suggest a brown spore colour, and the overall appearance is very Galerina-esque.
Thanks Frog. Well, the first Galerina I found in one of my books is autumnalis. Seems fairly likely from Bessette's write up. Based on it's common name, Deadly Galerina, I won't be taking a nibble to describe the taste. :-) One of the descriptions in Bessette includes "taste not distinctive:. I'll take his word for it. I'm printing your post for ID info to carry around. Thanks for the compilation.
