EEK! I just found this monster gilled mushroom in my grass, and it appears that Curious George, my kitten, may have eaten a portion of the cap. The entire mushroom from base to tip is about 8" long (in the photos that show a steel ruler, that's a 6" ruler.) Gills are brown-black in colour; there's a nice big sinus above them before the top of the cap. The cap is grey-beige, bruises brown, and has a distinctive and pleasant anise scent. No annulus present; volva if present didn't come up when I picked the mushroom; stem is slightly scaly towards the bottom. Stem is hollow with fairly thick walls. I'm currently waiting on a spore-print or cap dissolution, whichever comes first. It looks like a huge version of the little inkycaps I'm used to inside my greenhouse, except that those have no discernable odour. ID, please? Is it going to cause George problems? Or is it an edible I can toss in the stirfry?
Thank goodness! To update, the spore print was very heavy, grey-black and microscopic examination showed vaguely cylindrical spores.
