Is This Blue?

I don't know. I can't tell without a microscope. It is probably blue. It is beautiful and I am going to post it.

You have probably seen this a hundred times. Somebody will post a picture of a fungi...

Unidentified Toadstool.

Can anyone tell me what this is?

No of course they cant! I don't do that I photograph specimens in great detail and when I still can't get a positive ID I get very frustrated.

I know that you are frustrated too but you see, I am being paid to be mean to you.

Friends are just the stepping stones on the path to success.

I was ambitious once. I will get a bottle of whiskey for looking after her for five days and some things are more important than friendship :)

Before I even think about photographing a new mushroom there are certain criteria that must be met.

There must be something distinctive about it, something that makes it stand out from the rest. That will make it easier to identify and it also means that I will recognise it again when I see it.

The other thing is that I must have good specimens. There is no point at all in photographing a single, old, half decayed cap, that will tell you nothing. I want a fresh young fungus in good condition but even better than that is a group of them showing different stages of development.

The big plus for me is if it can also be beautiful (almost a necessity)

This group tick all of the boxes.

The pictures that you are about to see are not good enough/ do not contain enough information for a positive ID. Please keep that in mind when you are photographing new fungi for yourself. You have to give us a chance if you want to know what it is.

 Okay  I am going to leave that little family group intact in case I want to come back and have another look. There is a little one on the outside of the picture that I am  going to look at closer.

Hello Baby :)

So it is Stropharia species. If you find a blue mushroom like this it is almost certainly a Stropharia. They are commonly called Roundheads.

These are probably Stropharia caerulea, Blue Roundheads, they are the most common species but without microscopic examination we can't know for sure. It might not be blue, it could be Verdigris. (much rarer)

So it goes. They are beautiful and worth posting.

Now I am going to take Miss Grumpy out and try and put a smile on her face, even if that means feeding the sheep some popcorn :)