The Mushroom Thread - Post your fungi; strains from ILJ don't count.

[Pocket Dragoon]

My yard probably has the largest variety of mushrooms I've ever seen in one spot; during the spring; so many that early mornings after rain, it looks like the lawn is covered in small colorful wildflowers which vanish in hours.

This fall, I'll start with the appropriately spoopy Jack o' Lantern (or possibly an Armillaria Tabescens/Ringless Honey Mushroom). All of them glow.

Spoiler: Fungal Explosion

 

[thegooddoctor]

Nuff said.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

View attachment 2637569
Nuff said.

Lazy; at least make an OC mushroom.

Disqualified.

 

[Sundae]

An iconic mushroom, the Amanita:

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Beetles eating a random mushroom; I could hear them munching.

 

[Just wandering]

A mycelium of brown puffball is on my frontyard. So every fall if with the proper climate, I can find 4-5 of them growing on the grass

 

[totallyrandomusername]

I should check the backyard for 'shrooms. We've had a ton of rain lately.

 

[MemoriesOfMemphis]

When my friend from up north's mushies have dried, she'll send me some and I'll post em up. Proper nice lib caps.

 

[Billy Beer]

Anyone know owt about harvesting lib caps in the UK? I've never done shrooms but I'm in the ideal location for them (from the reasearch i've done) but would like some first hand experience.

I live next a field, with trees and a river running through it. Though it's a bit of a rough area so I wouldn't be suprised if everyone beat me to them.

 

[MemoriesOfMemphis]

Damp areas with plenty of rainfall really lol.
Also, they like cow shit.

 

[Battlecruiser3000ad]

Only been out huntin' shrooms once this year and found only couple, so that needs to be rectified next year.

Still have many dried from previous years tho:

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

<- I grow my own.

 

[totallyrandomusername]

Anyone know owt about harvesting lib caps in the UK? I've never done shrooms but I'm in the ideal location for them (from the reasearch i've done) but would like some first hand experience.

I live next a field, with trees and a river running through it. Though it's a bit of a rough area so I wouldn't be suprised if everyone beat me to them.

One of the major species that you are likely going to encounter is Psilocybe cyanescens, which is a big fan of dead wood, especially if it is fragmented (tends to show up around plant beds with good mulch) They're colloquially called "Wavy caps" since they are known to have caps that appear to be warped. Their cap is the easiest way to spot them. Like most saprotrophic 'shrooms, they tend to grow in loose clumps. You'll know you've hit pay dirt if you pinch the stalk of one and it turns blue. This is known as a "bluing reaction" and it only seen in magic mushrooms. This is a good diagram demonstrating how they look:

The other major species you will likely see is Psilocybe semilanceata. These are going to be a little harder to pick out because they basically look like every other little brown mushroom that grows on the face of the Earth. The best way to know if they are Psilocybe semilanceata vs. something else is the bluing test. You pinch the stalk, it turns blue, you've found the right ones. This one likes grasslands, and prefers fields that have been fertilized with cow dung, but will not grow in or on the dung itself, since it eats decaying grass roots. Given that it looks so much like other 'shrooms, it can unfortunately have other species identified as it, with fatal results. But, the bluing reaction is conclusive. No other family of mushrooms "blues" but magic 'shrooms. As you can see below, they are really very non-descript:

There are literally hundred of species of magic 'shroom, so if you want to find any of the lesser known species, you'll have to study up on them. That's about all I know concerning Bongistan 'shrooms.

I only know this because I could trade them to the operator of the S-TEM microscope at the university for scope time. It worked out well for both of us.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

View attachment 2703299

Animals? Vegetables? They're both. The myxomycetes can move and hunt for prey or look for the best environment for them. They are born from spores, like mushrooms, and move like huge amoebas; their movements seem to be dependent on microfibrils that remember the fibers of the muscles. These organisms crawl at a speed of 1 cm per hour, consuming bacteria, algae, yeasts, protozoa and other organic material; then they digest them and expel the remains outside.

But not randomly; myxomycetes proliferate where there are plenty of prey: on decomposing logs or on carpets of dead leaves, wet. And so they're often found in the woods: yellow, purple, blue, red, thanks to the pigments they contain.

Mycogastria

 

[Sundae]

Hydnellum peckii, aka the "bleeding tooth fungus":





Clathrus archeri, aka "the devil's fingers fungus":

 

[Shlomo XL]

thank you, thread, for cool pictures of mushrooms. alas, i have none to contribute (except this: )