Hey.. this one stumps me completely. The mushroom in these pictures was a 'small' one. That thing it is leaning up against is a pencil sharpener. The cap is about 4 inches diameter. The mushroom is about 7 inches high. It was growing at the base of a conifer. The bigger mushrooms around it were growing in a tight group with overlapping caps. some of the caps were bowed due to lack of space to expand (like a piece of paper bows if you push on opposite edges) The largest of the caps was easily 10 inches diameter. (Giants) Another of the mushrooms were actually growing out of the tree about one foot up from the ground. The tree did not look like it was in any way dead. I did not have my camera with me at the time. I go back next week and hope they will still be there. Any Ideas?
Although they don't always look like the photos in books, I think you have an Armillaria species...a type of Honey mushroom? Other ideas are Omphalotus sp., Galerina marginata or Gymnopilus sp. A spore print here would really help if you can get one?
Honey Mushrooms get that big? wow.. I will do my best to get a spore print for next week. I am in Victoria every weekend.
I strongly feel they are not the honey mushroom. They don't have black fibers on the cap. I'd suggest Gymnopilus spectabilis (or the larger Gymnopilus ventricosus). These Gymnopilus species have a very strong odor. Any chance you got to smell these these guys?
Yeah... They smelled wonderful.. but not strong. smelled like mushroom with very subtle hints of pine. I found something that looked very much like them. The differences are: - The ones I found on the net were in Australia - The majority of mine seemed to be growing out of the ground (only one or two growing out of the trunk of the tree) but they could have been growing out of root. - None of the ones I had found were discolored in any way.. all were the perfect creamy orange you see in my picture http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/publications/fungi/armillaria-luteobubalina.html
Thanks MycoRob... that is exactly what they look like. http://www.mushroomexpert.com/gymnopilus_junonius.html
One quick way to tell these things apart is by taste. The Gymnopilus we're talking about are VERY bitter, while the Armillaria are not. If you have some material laying around, take a nibble of the cap, chew it for a good 20 seconds and spit it out. I published a paper a couple of years ago on how mushrooms taste - and made a specific point about comparing Armillaria and Gymnopilis. Skip down to the side-by-side picture of the two if you're interested. http://anniegraham.com/Hallock.pdf
Hey MycoRob, Effects of electrical stimulation of the glossopharyngeal nerve on cells in the nucleus of the solitary tract of the rat (Robert M. Hallock and Patricia M. Di Lorenzo) Is this you as well??
Awesome....I didn't think the photo resembled the Honeys so much? But.....I've been wrong many times before! lol Those Gym's are beautiful...would love to see a grouping of them.
Yeah.. apparently a whole host of adventurous individuals are apparently of similar mind... although the reasons may differ: http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=19865 http://www.shroomery.org/86/13-grams-big-laughing-gym It is stories like these that make me wonder why more people do not just drop dead in the woods and fast-track directly to the Darwin Awards pages.
Reading stories like that? You almost WISH more would drop dead. I often have people ask me if I know of any mushrooms that can make u 'high'. I pull the big-eyed wonderment look and say, 'We have mushrooms that can do THAT?'........then run and stomp on the ones I just found so THEY wouldn't find them. grrr
I am not so sure I feel quite that way... at least not before they check into the local hospital. It is those people that provide us with valuable or otherwise unattainable information as well as, on occasion, much needed comic relief. With respect to getting *high* Society is finding more and more that much of the hype about the evils of magic mushrooms, and some other substances, is just that... Hype. The real problems seem to arise when people step in and purify these substances or the substances are utilized by youngsters whose brains have not passed a certain stage in development. With respect to magic mushrooms, Scientists have discovered they can successfully be used to manage cases of extreme depression where more orthodox approaches have been infective. The same applies to individuals suffering from extreme migraines. Do a few searches and you may be surprised. It is also probably true that many of these substances have contributed in no small way to the arts (Andy Warhol, Lewis Carroll, etc...). There are even those who have theorized these substances may have contributed to the formation of spoken language (although the few people I have come across who were stoned on mushrooms did seem to be lacking in this particular ability). None of this, however, precludes the thought that some people crawling around in the mushroom patch could use a good spanking... "Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid. " — Dean Koontz, Seize the Night