The attached plant (Autry) was found growing out of the baseboard of a room addition in the metro Atlanta, Georgia area. It was cut down and thought to be dead only to re-appear. Not sure of the identity, some sort of fungus; think it's poisonous; has a chalky substance to it; and not sure of how to remove it? Hope view is good enough for identification and recommendation(s)?
Means the wall is rotting. The parts you are showing are just the spore-producing bodies, there is a much larger fungal body inside the wood behind the painted surface. You need to tear the wall out and replace it instead of bothering about the mushrooms.
Although I agree with the white rot...and the fact you need to replace the wood...I don't think it is Peziza domiciliana..........Your growths appear to have gills? Or am I seeing 'things'? lol I think it actually may possibly be Veiled Oysters, Pleurotus dryinus? Just...not in the best of shape. Do they feel fuzy on top? If you slid a piece of black paper under the caps....is there a white spore print? I know it's kind of hard to ID something from photos....but I've actually known people to 'accidently' grow Oysters from the strangest locations. Ask fishdr....he grows them from pillow cases! lol
The wife is of the same opinion that it could something else and we're still researching. Comparing what we see to what we have is harder than what we thought. It has already been decided that the baseboard, wall, and floor will have to go to get at the root of our problem(s). Of course I could let it grow and turn the room into an indoor flower garden. With my luck she will turn into a beanstalk and try and take over the second floor as well..
lol...Ron? You've had too much coffee today haven't you...lol I was thinking.........it probably would be a REALLLLY bad idea to just let it go and keep growing things there? Imagine what OTHER things might...um...arise from this damp situation? However...I've always wanted a 'sub-terranium' terranium. :o) I often keep containers with damp wood in them sealed up to see what might grow. One such experiment left me with black 'fingers' that resembled Spiderman's alter ego Venom. BTW...I think Tipularia hit on the head! (yeahhh...it IS in the Oyster family....) (maybe)
In Little Shop Of Horrors Autry did eat people - feed me. With that in mind, Autry could eat the wife or I on her way to the second floor. The next big question is, besides tearing up the baseboard, the wall, and like, how do I stamp it out? Is it a matter of it goes with the wood or are my roots deeper than that?
Either Pleurotus ostreatus or Hypsizygus ulmarius. Both edible and delicious. Fry well with onions and garlic in olive oil. Your room is too dry and that's why the appearance is not typical. To produce really superior fruit bodies, hang a plastic drop sheet, of the flimsiest kind, in front of the wall and over the area. THis will allow gas exchange but keep the local humidity up. Your fruits will be much better next time. The wall will be easier to take out when all the fruitings are over. The wood will be weak. I think it unlikely anything pathogenic will take root while the oysters are in residence, but Hypsizygus ulmarius spores, can , with repeated exposure over time, make people very sick. I'll have to try baseboards.... Photos 1 phone book 2 old clothes 3 pillowcase
Thought that the plant in 'L.S.O.H.' was named Audrey---more precisely, Audrey II. Perhaps there is a Western version of this classic featuring Gene Autry...?
The pleurotus ostreatus doesn't look like Autry but of course as I have told the wife the variances on this thing could be endless. We are still looking and comparing. Togata57 you are more than right on the proper spelling of Audrey II but being a western fan Gene's spelling did come to mind first. I'm an old fart here and I'm lucky I have been able to hold it together for this long.
Taking note from "Little Shop of Horrors" I would also be concerned about breathing the air from these rooms....
Reading about 'harmful molds' and such? Sadly....the new media took over on that. I don't think you have anything to fear until you start to actually tear out the wood. Does anyone know of anything specifc that can harm one with this kind of condition?
Some fungi are more cosmopolitan in their diets than others: There are wood-rotting fungi that will also consume animal tissue. The human body resists fungal attack successfully and daily, but someone with a compromised immune system would want to be careful and avoid being in spore-heavy environments. If you can stomach it, reading the Dr.Fungus website is interesting - Personally I find it hard to look at parts of that website so consider yourself cautioned :-) cheers, frog
Seems to me like the action of utmost importance here is to locate and eliminate the source of the moisture feeding this growth! Identification can be done later, at leisure---but no leisure will there be for Andre and his wife if they must hack down huge scary fungi bursting from the walls. As Ron observed at top, what is visible outside is likely only a fraction of the size of whatever is growing inside. Yikes. The mind boggles.
If what we see is just the tip of the fungus-berg then I hate to see what awaits me in the crawl space below. The thoughts of a monster fungus growing in that section just waiting to consume me is real cheery aspect. Dr. Fungus can just add luster to all the new fungi I have come to know and love.
Andre, I do not envy you this job. I deeply sympathize! It will be disgusting, messy, time-consuming and expensive, no matter what approach you take. May I suggest getting an estimate from a reputable company to do this for you? Not cheap, I'm sure, but I'll bet it would be worth the expense to have the job done quickly, safely, to have your peace of mind restored, and to be able to use your room again. You have gotta be feeling pretty uneasy about this thing growing unseen in your walls...please consider allowing trained professionals to help you get rid of it!
Given that it was suppose to be trained professionals who put on the addition you can rest assured there will be a lot of double checking of qualifications!
Do you have any recourse in terms of getting whoever did this substandard work to repair same? Small (or, maybe LARGE) claims court? A call to the Better Business Bureau? If you signed a contract, check over that fine print and see exactly what this co. is obligated to do. Surely it has to be registered with some sorta American Builders Association or some such organization---perhaps some action could be generated by a phone call to it?
Those thoughts have come to mind on numerous occasions but the contractor was fired by us for not doing what he was suppose to do or half doing what was suppose to be done in the first place. Had another contractor out today and his preliminary assessment is that I'm going to need an EPA evaluation of Autry or whatever is growing under the room. While a leak of some kind would seem the problem, a brief look of the outside leads one to believe that the inside floor is almost on level with the outside ground and when it rains, as it so often does in Georgia, it's running under the floor before falling into the crawl space. The fact that I'm taking on water in the crawl space is bad enough but to have water near constantly running against the floor and etcetera is worse. Options here are looking costly but have to be done. It's a jungle down here and now it has come to root in my house.
I have had visions from day one when the wife showed Autry to me. My daughter and I were talking of putting Christmas decorations on Autry in lieu of a regular tree. Unfortunately, the wife has cut down phase two of Autry. Not to worry, phase III of growth is just around the baseboard I know. I will post the new version (photo) when she becomes available to us.