I took this picture about 100 km North of the NWT Alb border in 2015 on Aug 21. I thought it was perhaps Psilocybe semilanceata but the cap itself seemed more robust. Could it be Psilocybe fimetaria? There had been tones of rain a week earlier. Although it does not show well in the picture the rings were very dark purple and there were hints of pale blue on the cap and the pellicle was still a little stretchy Honestly I did not think I would find any of psilocybe mushrooms up that far but they looked very much like dried out versions of those mushrooms... the one did really look like Psilocybe cyanescens
Hi tanuki33 Thank you for posting your interesting find… In an interesting location. Psilocybe, Panaeolus are not genera that I’m very good at, so hopefully others will respond. I did want to suggest, however, Panaeolus cyanescens as a possibility. The dung habitat does eliminate some possibilities.
I looked at that possibility the other night and initially thought it unlikely as it is "primarily tropical and subtropical species". The rough location the picture is taken would be Hay River / Enterprise; approx parallel would be 60.5. Aug is still very warm Average day temp that year for Aug was about 19c night average about 10c with 18 hours of daylight... I believe the sun had actually started going down by then. Temperatures the previous weeks were in the mid to high 20s and because the daylight was still at about 18 hours the ground did not cool much at night. The fungus was growing in bison poop. The colonisation temperature for Panaeolus cyanescens is about 24c to 29c which fits that time frame. The fruiting temp is roughly the same and, while it had cooled a little around the 21st, it was only a few days either side. the rest of the month was in the sweet spot for those little blue meanies. So... while the temp range fits I can not find any data about there being a history of that fungus up there. I am hoping someone with better knowledge has some input.
Looks like a misunderstanding: The photo @tanuki33 posted was regarding the whitish mushrooms growing out of the blackish dung, not the dung itself. @Garry Oak's photo is of something that resembles the blackish dung. Hence the start of the misunderstanding. @Garry Oak your find appears to be more like a burl, as in the Arbutus' response to an infection (fungal, virus). It was useful to see the original post, as while I see my comments suggesting some fungi, on closer looks this appears to be composed of the wood itself, just blackening. While as we all know, tone of voice does not come through very well in emails/posts and misunderstandings abound. I think remarks would not have sounded disrespectful in the context of the knowledge that part of the original photo was of dung ... *but* likely would have sounded disrespectful without that context. Name calling of course is not acceptable in these forums. I think this is a reminder to us all to do our best to ensure our language is collaborative in these spaces, and sometimes that means to repress our first reactions. I'll do some moderation on this thread. Happily this is the first time in a very very long time I've needed to shut anything down in these forums.
If it was in Europe, my guess would be an old specimen of Exidia truncata File:Exidia truncata 111515921.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
I... kinda want to say yes. That seems very much like them. They apparently also have a stretchy coating on the cap. I suppose the slight blue colour I saw in the caps could be from spore colour melting into it. Thanks. Next time I am up there I will have to see if I can find some less dry ones. I kinda want to bring up a bunch of Panaeolus cyanescens spores and spread them around to see if they take. The muskeg up there keeps many of these places quite moist and as long as you are slightly above the water table the ground can retain its heat for much of the season.. and just a few feet down is permafrost so.. they probably wouldnt. Thanks again.
There is a nice image about P. cyanescens identification parameters at: https://explore.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/mushroomsup/P_cyanescens.html
The picture you included is Psilocybe Cyanescens, which I used to pick all the time in a graveyard on 33rd and Fraiser in Vancouver, I would not be likely to mistake them. Much later I saw Paul Stamens do a talk where he mentioned how he, and another of his friends/colleagues, had gone around inoculating piles of mulch at the yard works around Vancouver with Psilocybe Cyanescens... so I probably have him to thank for this. Until the city changed some of their gardening practices. I remember once waiting at the bus stop on Oak and 32nd, by what is now Canadian Blood Services, a few weeks after they had re-mulched the lawns. I stepped on the lawn and slipped and discovered the brown stuff I was standing in was not dirt or mud but a solid carpet of magic mushrooms. It was a very interesting month. In any case... I thought the ones we were discussing were Panaeolus cyanescens which look so much like the mushrooms I posted I am still not entirely sure they were the dung roundhead. I was up in NWT buying, or rather coming back from a few months of buying, morels. Before covid I would typically go out foraging all over BC and Alberta between seasons. My absolute favorites are: admirable boletes, saffron milkcap and their edible look alikes, Lactarius deterrimus, and bloody milk cap. red cap bolete leccinum aurantiacum (but these make my kidneys hurt for a few days for some reason so I had to stop) Pine mushrooms. and slippery jacks. I had an opportunity to pick some yellow knights but you have to be careful with those. There are a bunch more I enjoy harvesting but those are my favourites
