I have dragged Fizz up to look at some old Sweet Chestnut coppice and she isn't over excited because we have to walk on the road and there isn't any playing ball as we go.
It is okay once we reach the wood.
The floor is thick with the Sweet Chestnut leaves. These leaves contain toxins that inhibit the growth of other plants but some things do well here and we will have a look at them when we return tomorrow.
This is what I have found.
Armillaria ostoyae. It is the same Honey Fungus that used to grow in woodland that I owned some years ago.
I wrote a post about it recently About Honey Monsters using pictures that I had taken years ago. I am excited to have the opportunity to photograph it again and that is why we are going back for another look tomorrow.
When I saw it today I had a good idea what it was but I couldn't get proper confirmation until I got home, it has been a few years since I found one of these. There are some key identification features that I still want to photograph and we could eat it.
I probably won't eat it just because I like to see it on the tree but I will try a little bit just to see if I have a reaction and then I can eat it next time. You should always try a little bit first if you haven't eaten a species before.
Here are some of the pictures that I took today.
It's a tree. Somebody tell him it's a tree, we've got things to play.
Sensing that my companion was somewhat less enthusiastic about mushrooms than I was, I dragged her off to a field for some playtime.
We are at the top of he hills now and the fields are dry, close cropped and full of sunshine.
If I had found just one of these fungi on it's own I would probably have passed it by. It would have seemed unexceptional and pretty indistinct to me.
What made it beautiful was the scale. These were big mushrooms.
So now we need to find out what it is. The pictures above are nice and they contain some important information but not enough for an ID.
The cap colour is indicative, the name "Clouded" comes from the grey/white colour of the cap which is always darker in the centre and the crinkled edges of the older fruits are also true to this species but many fungi have these characteristics. The other information that I am getting from these pictures is the way that they are growing together in quantity, that is also indicative of this species.
We want to find out what it is, so I am going to gather as much information as I can.
I need to look at the stem and the underside of the mushroom. Is there a ring on the stem? does it sit in a cup? Is it hairy or scaly? I need to know if this mushroom has gills, many of them don't, they often have a flat porous underside and it is absolutely vital to record this. When I cut it I am looking at how the gills join to the stem and the colour of them.
The way that I approach this is to try and photograph everything that I can possibly think of.
Even with these pictures there is still a very good chance that I won't be able to identify the species. There are other things that you can look at. Does the fungi have a noticeable odour.
Sometimes scent is quite faint and the best way to smell a mushroom is to put some in a bag.
Let the scent concentrate in the bag for a few minutes, then open it up and breathe it in deeply. (Scratch you screen now)
Wow! OW! That wasn't really necessary. This mushroom has a very strong odour. I have heard this smell described as unpleasant but I didn't think so. It had a strong mushroomy/earthy smell and my first thought was that I would like to eat it :)
Something else that you should look at is if it discolours when cut or bruised.
Here is an old video of a friend and I demonstrating a fungi called Blushing Bracket. "Blushing" because it bruises very easily.
Some fungi does, ours didn't.
But it is just as important to know that it doesn't discolour as it is to know that it does.
The other thing that you should take note of is where you found it. If it was growing on wood do you know what kind of wood? What trees are around and what other plants. Soil type might be important and if you know what plants are growing there that can say a lot about the soil. If you don't know then photograph them.
The next thing that you can do is to take a spore print but up until now everything that I have done has been on location and has only taken me a few minutes. I didn't need a spore print for this one so we will do that in another post.
This may all seem like a lot of trouble to go to but this is what I like. I go out looking for things that I don't recognise and I identify them and learn about them. I was pretty determined to identify this mushroom.
If you do want to identify a fungus then please at least give us the cap, stem and gills if it has these things. It makes it so much easier.
So what did I get from all of this discovery?
The most interesting thing that I found out concerned it's edibility. The common advice is to avoid it. It is not poisonous but it can have an adverse effect. It causes gastric upset in a lot of people and some people it doesn't effect at all. Tummy upset? Not very serious :)
I quickly found two blogs where people described eating it, one of them said...
The trick is to try a little and then wait for twenty four hours. Find out if you are one of the lucky ones. There is a lot of it and it will regrow in the same spot. I think that if it is that good it is worth taking the test :)
Note: there are a few white gilled, pale capped fungi that are more poisonous than this one. Make sure that you know what you are playing with.
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 Strophariaspecies. 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 :)
