Stropharia hornemannii

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Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or in clusters on duff and woody debris in boreal and montane forests; often found fruiting from well-decayed wood; summer and fall; widely distributed in northern and montane North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Colorado and Québec.

Cap: 3.5-8 cm; convex to broadly conic when young, becoming broadly convex, nearly flat, or broadly bell-shaped; sticky when fresh; bald; sometimes appearing slightly radially streaked; reddish brown to purple-brown or brown when young, but usually fading quickly to tan or pale yellowish brown; often adorned with white veil remnants near the margin.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem or, with age, beginning to pull away from it; close; short-gills frequent; pale gray at first, later purplish gray to purple-black.

Stem: 6-10 cm long; 1-1.5 cm thick; equal; dry; with a fairly persistent, skirtlike, white ring featuring a grooved upper surface that becomes dusted with purple-black spore dust; below the ring conspicuously shaggy-scaly with whitish girdles, especially when young; base attached to white mycelial threads.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced, or turning slightly yellowish.

Odor and Taste: Odor somewhat foul, or reminiscent of pumpkin. Taste not distinctive.

Spore Print: Dark purple-brown to blackish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 12-15 x 6-7.5 m; ellipsoid; with a small pore; smooth; brown in KOH. Cheilocystidia as leptocystidia; 40-60 x 15-20 m; widely lageniform to subutriform; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia as chrysocystidia; 50-70 x 10-15 m; lageniform to utriform; thin-walled; smooth; with or without refractive, yellowish to golden inclusions. Pileipellis an ixocutis; elements 4-5 m wide, smooth, yellowish in KOH, clamped at septa.

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Laccaria laccata

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods or conifers; growing alone or gregariously (sometimes in loose clusters); common; spring, summer, and fall; widely distributed in North America.

Cap: Usually 1-4.5 cm across, but sometimes larger or smaller; convex, becoming flat and sometimes uplifted; often with a central depression; the margin smooth and even or lined to grooved; bald to finely hairy; orangish brown, fading to buff; color often changing markedly as it dries out.

Gills: Attached to the stem, or beginning to run down it; distant or close; pinkish (Caucasian) flesh color, sometimes developing a faint purplish cast.

Stem: 2-10 cm long; up to 1 cm thick; equal or tapering to base; smooth to finely hairy; occasionally longitudinally grooved; colored like the cap; with white basal mycelium; becoming hollow.

Flesh: Thin, colored like the cap.

Odor and Taste: Taste mild to slightly radishlike; odor similar.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 ; subglobose to globose; ornamented with spines 1-2 long and about 1 wide at their bases; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored. Cheilocystidia usually present; filamentous to subclavate; up to about 55 x 7.5 . Pileipellis a cutis of elements mostly 3-7.5 wide, with scattered bundles of upright elements; terminal cells subclavate to subcapitate.

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Amanita prairiicola

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Ecology: Saprobic, appearing in grasslands, growing alone or gregariously; originally described from Kansas; distributed in North America from the Great Plains westward to Colorado, the southwestern United States, and southern California; also known from Argentina. The illustrated and described collection is from Colorado.

Cap: 5-11 cm across; convex, expanding to broadly convex or planoconvex; dry; white to pale brownish, with brownish to grayish brown, flattened warts; developing cracks and fissures in arid conditions; the margin not lined.

Gills: Free from the stem or nearly so; creamy, becoming brownish when past maturity; close; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 5-9 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; fairly equal; dry; finely fibrillose; whitish to pale brownish; with a collapsing white ring; universal veil remnants present as brownish patches.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: Creamy white.

Microscopic Features: Spores 10-12 x 6.5-7.5 m; elongated-ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; amyloid. Basidia about 40 x 10 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis not differentiated; cap surface a layer of smooth, hyaline elements 5-15 m wide, with velar sphaerocysts in chains.

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Question for mycologists: I’ve been turkeytail-foraging in recent months and, whenever I find some on a hike, tapping them along logs they might like on other parts of the trails, to spread their spores. Is that actually a way to help them spread?

#turkeytails #mycology

Boletus pulverulentus

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods or conifers; growing alone or scattered; summer and fall; northeastern North America and Texas.

Cap: 4-10 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex; dry or moist; finely velvety or dusted when young, but soon smooth; dark brown to blackish brown; bruising bluish black when fresh and young; sometimes becoming cracked in places, with reddish tints in and around the cracks.

Pore Surface: Yellow, becoming brownish yellow with age; bruising instantly dark blue; 1-2 angular pores per mm; tubes to 15 mm deep.

Stem: 4-8 cm long; 1-2.5 cm thick; more or less equal; solid; bright yellow at the apex; reddish brown to brown below; with raised ridges, though not truly reticulate; bruising blue; basal mycelium white but soon darkening to brown when handled.

Flesh: Yellow, staining instantly blue on exposure; red in the base of the stem.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Ammonia flashing green, then quickly resolving to black on the cap surface; erasing the blued areas of the flesh. KOH black on the cap surface; orangish on flesh. Iron salts negative on the cap surface; erasing the blued areas of the flesh.

Spore Print: Dark olive to olive brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 11-14 x 4.5-6 ; smooth; subfusoid. Cystidia fusoid-ventricose; abundant; 32-50 x 8-15 ; with granular, amorphous, reddish brown content when mounted in Melzer's.

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Globifomes graveolens

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Ecology: Saprobic and possibly parasitic; appearing on deadwood and from the wounds of living hardwoods (primarily oaks); causing a white rot; annual, or perennial for a few years; summer and fall—or year-round in warmer climates; originally described from Georgia; widely distributed in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collection is from Ohio.

Fruiting Body: 10-23 cm high; 8-16 cm across; 6-10 cm deep; a mass of tightly packed, overlapping individual caps arising from a central core.

Individual caps: 1-5 cm across; semicircular to fan-shaped; planoconvex to flat; often drooping; bald or finely fuzzy; dry; with vague concentric zones of color; reddish brown to brown, becoming dull brownish gray with age.

Pore Surface: Grayish, becoming brownish to brown; not bruising; pores round and small (2-4 per mm), with thick dissepiments; tubes 2-4 mm deep.

Flesh: Granular in the central core; tough and fibrous in the caps; pale to dark brown; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH slowly black on flesh of dried specimens.

Microscopic Features: Spores not found; reported (Gilbertson & Ryvarden 1987) as 10-14 x 3-4 m; cylindric; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Setae not found. Hyphal system trimitic: generative hyphae 3-5 m wide, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline in KOH, with clamp connections; skeletal hyphae 4-6.5 m wide, smooth, thick-walled, brown in KOH; binding hyphae 5-10 wide, very thick-walled, aseptate. Sclerids abundant in granular core context; thick-walled; reddish brown in KOH.

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Itajahya galericulata

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Itajahya_galericulata.html

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously in gardens and cultivated areas; summer and fall in the Northern Hemisphere, winter and spring in the Southern Hemisphere; originally described from Brazil; widespread in South America; in North America distributed in Texas and the southwestern United States; well documented in South Africa; reported from India. The illustrated and described collection is from Arizona.

Immature Fruiting Body: A whitish "egg" 2-3 cm high and 3-5 cm wide; surface smooth; when sliced revealing the stinkhorn-to-be encased in a gelatinous substance.

Mature Fruiting Body: 9-12 cm high; 3-4.5 cm thick at the widest point; more or less cylindric; hollow.

Head: 3-4.5 cm high; 3.5-4.5 cm wide; cylindric to slightly egg-shaped; hollow; surface appearing coarsely granular from a distance—the appearance resulting from the surface being composed of small wrinkled nodes of tissue, surrounded by dark brown spore slime; apex adorned with a calyptra—a large cap-like patch of whitish tissue exceeding the width of the head; apex sometimes perforated.

Stem: 6-8 cm high; 3-4 cm wide; spongy; hollow; finely pocked; whitish to yellowish; sometimes with adhering patches of volval material; base encased in a whitish to brownish, sacklike volva; attached to thin whitish rhizomorphs.

Odor: Foul while the spore slime is present.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3-4 x 1.5-2 m; elongated-ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Sphaerocysts of the pseudostipe 24-52 m across; subglobose unless compressed, and then irregular; walls 1-1.5 m thick; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Hyphae of the volva 3-10 m wide; smooth; thin-walled; septate; hyaline in KOH. Clamp connections not found.

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Craterellus ignicolor

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks, beech, and birches; growing gregariously or in clusters in moss or sphagnum in damp, shady areas; apparently widely distributed in eastern North America; summer and fall. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Michigan.

Cap: 1.5-5 cm wide; planoconvex when very young but soon developing a central depression and, eventually, becoming vase-shaped, with a perforated center; with a wavy and often irregular or scalloped margin at maturity; slightly moist when fresh, but soon dry; bald or, when young, with a canescent sheen from tiny, appressed, whitish fibrils; bright orange to orangish yellow or brownish yellow, fading with age to dull yellowish.

Undersurface: With fairly well developed, thick, blunt false gills that run down the stem; becoming cross-veined; pale yellow to grayish at first, developing pinkish to faintly purplish hues at maturity and, eventually, becoming very pale tan.

Stem: 2-6 cm long; 3-10 mm thick; equal or tapering to base; becoming hollow; bald, with a somewhat waxy texture; bright orange-yellow to orange; basal mycelium bright yellow.

Flesh: Thin; whitish.

Odor and Taste: Taste not distinctive; odor not distinctive, or slightly fruity.

Spore Print: Pinkish yellow to yellow.

Chemical Reactions: Iron salts grayish to negative on undersurface; negative on flesh. KOH negative on cap surface.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9-12 x 6-8 ellipsoid; smooth; faintly ochraceous in KOH; with minutely granular contents; cyanophilous. Basidia 4-sterigmate; 65-75 long. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis not differentiated. Elements of upper surface 5-7.5 wide; hyaline in KOH; smooth; clamped at septa.

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Ductifera pululahuana

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Ecology: Probably saprobic on decaying hardwood logs (typically after the bark has disappeared); late spring, summer, and fall (probably to be expected in winter in tropical and subtropical areas); distribution uncertain but documented in eastern and southern North America, and as far south as Ecuador.

Fruiting Body: A mass of individual whitish, jelly-like globs growing in close proximity and often fusing together to form structures reminiscent of exposed brains; individual globs up to about 3 cm across, irregularly shaped but frequently roughly fan-shaped; stemless; flesh thick and gelatinous. Older specimens may discolor somewhat yellowish, brownish, or even pinkish to purplish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9-12 x 4.5-7 ; sausage shaped or broadly elliptical. Basidia longitudinally septate, with sterigmata to 75 long. Gloeocystidia present; often 80 long or longer.

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Hypholoma fasciculare

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Ecology: Saprobic; growing in clusters on decaying logs and stumps of conifers and, rarely, hardwoods; fall and winter, sometimes in spring; widely distributed in North America, but more common along the West Coast and in montane or northern areas. The illustrated and described collections are from California, Colorado, and Illinois.

Cap: 2-5 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; bald; dry; when young often tawny reddish brown or orange, but usually becoming bright yellow to greenish yellow or golden yellow, with a darker center; the margin often featuring small, wispy partial veil fragments.

Gills: Attached to the stem or pulling away from it; close or crowded; yellow, becoming olive or greenish yellow, and eventually dusted with spores and therefore spotted purplish brown to blackish; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 3-10 cm long; 4-10 mm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to base; bright yellow to tawny; developing rusty brown stains from the base upwards; a bright yellow cortina present in buttons, but soon disappearing or leaving a faint ring zone.

Flesh: Thin, yellow.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste bitter.

Spore Print: Purple brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 5-8 x 3-4.5 ; ellipsoid; smooth; thin-walled; with a pore; yellowish in KOH. Pleuro-chrysocystidia fusoid-ventricose to mucronate; to 40 x 10 . Pileipellis a cutis or ixocutis; elements encrusted.

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