4rum Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Found 12-15-14 in woodland forrested mostly with poplar. Stype went pretty deep I am not positive but it felt like it might have been growing from an underground branch or root. The brown cap is very distinctive. It's a beautiful color of deep brown. Please note that there are two small mushrooms growing from the bulb of the two larger ones. The small ones are growing from the bulb, not random. Since there are two larger mushroom I laid them, one on a white paper towel, the other on a dark mat. I checked often but saw no spores. I checked again first thing this morning. The spores shed overnight were a cream color. I don't know if the color changed with time overnight. The color wasn't tan or brown, but a nice color sort of like coffee with lots of cream. I spend a lot of time in the woods. I have never seen this mushroom before. I did a little looking on google and in the field guides I now have. I was unable to distinguish enough of it's characteristics to ID it. Any help greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Very interesting, 'rum. Off hand, I don't know this one. Excellent photos give us some traits to research. And knowing a spore print color should help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 I'm still looking too Dave. I find 'close', 'similar' but nothing is quite the same. Most info I'm finding lists spore print as white. The spore print from this mushroom was (as above) like heavily creamed coffee color. That could be from sitting overnight. I don't know. On the dark mat, I did not see any white spores. All were the buff cream color. The print did not appear to have any yellow or green tint. The mushroom in the photos is pretty fresh. Don't know if any of this helps. Beautiful specimen though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Usually, when mushroom folks describe a spore print as "cream", they mean to say it's pretty close to white. Sounds like this one has lightly colored spores. You should post this to Mushroom Observer, 'rum. The photos are excellent. Post the ID proposal as Agaricales. The closest I thing I have found is Pleurotus eryngii. Lightly colored spore print matches Pleurotus. I'm wondering if this type may have escaped from cultivation. But I have my doubts about this proposal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eat-bolete Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Can it be of Cantharelulla or Lentinellus family? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Cantharellula umbonata is a small gray moss-inhabiting mushroom with distinctly forked white gills that stain reddish brown. I have collected this good edible many times. I don't think the ones seen above are C. umbonata. http://mushroomobserver.org/150992?q=2Prrs Cantharellula cyathiformis (currently Pseudoclitocybe cyathiformis) is an interesting proposal. The cap for this species is usually smoother than the caps seen on the ones in this thread. My collections have produced white spore print, although Phillips reports the spore print may sometimes be yellow for this species. The gills seen above are more strongly decurrent than I associate with P. cyathiformis. These seem to be minor differences. P. cyathiformis grows on wood, but we should not rule out buried wood for the ones discussed here. A possibility, I'd say. http://mushroomobserver.org/175732?q=2Prrs Most Lentinellus species have gills with serrated edges and white spore prints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thanks Dave. I'll try to put the photos and descriptions on MO. The site is a little difficult for me to use. My first outing there with the little yellow 'club' mushroom didn't go all that well Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 OK, I think I got this up on MO. It wanted more than Agaricales. I had no idea where to go from there so in order to post, I chose a check box an' let 'er rip. I know that the aim in identification is to accumulate as much information as possible ... but ... bad information just muddles the process. The site needs an 'unknown' check box for each inquiry it makes. The box I chose will most likely not have the characteristics of the mushroom I found making me look a little silly and effecting my credibility. No matter, I don't have any credibility, but it may steer good, knowledgeable folks in the wrong direction. If there's a work around for getting an entry to post I'd like that please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 The MO post looks good to me. I wonder why you're having trouble making posts there? Could it be that you are posting photos from an online album and the site is having trouble recognizing what you wish to post? I suggest this because the photo names listed in the MO post appear to be conglomerations of several different photo names, presumably from one album. Your Nolecta post looks just fine. If there was some reason why someone thought these yellow clubs were not N. irregularis, you would have heard about it. One thing about MO... many members are more likely to propose what something isn't than to propose what it is. Personally, I don't favor this approach, but the bottom line is that I have learned an awful lot about fungal identification by interacting on MO. If you don't get any hits on the brown funnels, then I'll eventually propose a few names. That oughta get things started. It's a nice post of what I consider to be an interesting find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thanks Dave. Most of the problems with MO are user error. I need to learn more about the site and mycology. I have books now and I do read and research quite a bit. I hope to improve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Walt Sturgeon has proposed a high-confidence ID for these brown funnels... Pelurotus ostreatus, the Oyster Mushroom. I posted a comment, and hopefully Walt will provide some context to his ID proposal. Walt is one of the better mushroom identifiers in North America. He often directs the identification activities at sorting tables for big forays. http://mushroomobserver.org/193919?q=2PDk0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 I haven't been harvesting oyster mushrooms that long and all the research I'd done shows the off center stype if present at all. These have a well defined, centrally located stype and the cap being so deeply funneled also puzzled me. I took a photo of the spores today. The appear whiter today. Another clue I should have emphasized is the lateness of the season for my zone and the weather. It's been cold. I tend to agree with Mr. Sturgeon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 It looks like these originated underneath a log and curled up around the log. Oysters sometimes develop stems, and in this case, it may have served the purpose of allowing the mushrooms to expand in an open air space. The thing that really through me was the cap surface color/texture. This is why I had thought maybe an exotic species of Pleurotus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Dave they were so pretty I hated to pick them but I did want to see where the stems went and I wanted the spore print. I should have cut a stem to see if it was hollow or solid. I'm almost 66, I've spent time in the woods since I was 7 or 8, I'd never seen this mushroom before. I went back to that log today to see if there were any more like it. I didn't find any but did find the really nice oyster posted in the other thread. BTW, thanks again for helping ID this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Dave back in the discussion somewhere I noted that I wasn't sure that the brown funnel mushroom was attached to any wood. It certainly was not attached to the log shown. I did examine the bottom end of the stype. It didn't appear to have been attached to anything. This was growing in deep leaf clutter with deep black, loose soil as well. It was easy to run my finger down to the bottom of the stem. I did feel an underground root or branch that had been shoved under the dirt by the force of the tree falling. The two mushrooms were growing together and pulled very easily. Of course it's been very wet and the soil was loose and wet. I'll keep an eye out for any more like this that might come along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 I have seen examples of Oysters fruiting from buried wood, causing them to appear terrestrial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 (edited) I'm so new at ID'ing mushrooms that I hate to even question anyone else's suggestions. I'm just not comfortable with this being thought of as Pleurotus ostreatus . The texture of the top doesn't fit. Though the mushroom appeared very fresh, it was dry, like a super market button mushroom. All the other winter oysters I'm finding are wet, slick and almost to the point of being slimy on top. I know that the weather has been exceptionally rainy and that that would account for some of the feel or texture, but the funnel shaped brown mushroom just did not resemble the other oysters in any way. Stem, stem length, color, stem location (it is central not to the side like all the other oysters). The stem was dry and somewhat scaly, the other oysters have has smooth stems when stems are present. I do realize that there are many, many oyster mushrooms and that I need to study a lot more of them in much greater detail. Dave please don't think me argumentative on this. I WANT to follow this BECAUSE it has some questionable characteristics. I feel that it will help me further both my understanding of the identification process and the necessity in collecting better detailed information and descriptions of samples. Edited to correct spelling [Pleurotus ostreatus] Edited December 19, 2014 by 4rum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 'Rum, the reason why Mushroom Observer uses the confidence-level proposal-voting is because IDing mushrooms can be soooo tricky. Discussions do sometimes turn into arguments. So your exercising restraint regarding expressing your own opinion about these brown funnels is well-founded. I've seen of some very nice posts on MO where the proposals devolved into a list of very low-confidence names because of basically unfounded negative voting. On the other hand, I have made collections/posts of mushrooms which I, or someone else, initially thought to be such-and-such, or initially had no solid proposal. Sometimes someone eventually shows up with a good proposal based upon their similar experiences. Or maybe I make another similar collection and observe something that I missed the first time. Walt's expression of high confidence about these tells me that he has probably made similar Pleurotus observations in the past. Actually, partly based upon your reported spore-print color I had thought Pleurotus was a possibility, except I thought "exotic species." More often than not, an example of an "exotic species" turns out to be a common variety fruiting under non-standard conditions. In this case, the possible occurrence on buried wood and the bending around a downed log may account for the typical Oyster having an atypical appearance. This is the kind of stuff that helps make mushroom observation challenging and interesting. Looks like rain and above normal temps for eastern NA next week. So don't be surprised if, while gathering with family and friends around the Yule Log, you find yourself wondering about gathering from the Mushroom Log Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 Dave your comment about Walt maybe having had a similar find makes a lot of sense. It would resolve some of my concerns, mainly the texture of the cap and stem. The responses I've seen on several mushrooms at MO strike me as very accurate and well founded. It's why the accumulated knowledge of a group like those at MO is so important. Thank you for taking the time to follow this thread and for helping so much. I did make it out yesterday morning. I didn't find any more of the brown funnel mushrooms. I did find plenty of fresh oysters for dinner though. It was very cold. The ones on the tops and sides of the logs were frozen but if I got down and checked the bottom side of the logs (most are off the ground a little) I could find clusters that the ground and leaf cover had kept from freezing. I did a little survey of this small area. I think there were signs of oysters on every poplar that the wind had blown down, even some smaller branches. I wonder how long these tree laps will continue to produce? If a warm us does occur, if there is another major flush, I WILL harvest and dry every oyster I can pick. I've enjoyed these so much. I'm going to run down to recipes now and try to put in the preparation of some I had for dinner last night. thanks Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 At our local mushroom club meeting last night, a member brought in some beautiful fresh Oysters he picked from Staghorn Sumac. I've not ever seen fresh ones after the types of weather we've had these past 5 weeks or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 Some are still coming out on that 'Tree of Paradise' I posted earlier. That tree is what we used to cal 'tame sumac'. The leaves are like sumac, the sticky sap is like sumac but the trees get HUGE. Some of the oysters I found yesterday were VERY fresh ... just perfect! I'll be crawling underneath these logs all winter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualsetters Posted January 18, 2015 Report Share Posted January 18, 2015 A few days ago I picked up a cheap mushroom guide that I had not seen before. It ended up being a European guide and when going through it I found an Oyster that reminded me of this one, Pluerotus cornucopiae. Im not suggesting that this is what it is but just found it interesting that there were funnel shape oysters in other parts of the world. http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6646~gid~~source~gallerydefault.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
augur Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 Walt Sturgeon has proposed a high-confidence ID for these brown funnels... Pelurotus ostreatus, the Oyster Mushroom. I posted a comment, and hopefully Walt will provide some context to his ID proposal. Walt is one of the better mushroom identifiers in North America. He often directs the identification activities at sorting tables for big forays. http://mushroomobserver.org/193919?q=2PDk0 Hi Dave - Do you mean Pleurotus ostreatus? A Ph.D. mycologist suggested that identification for the mushrooms I posted about in my thread "Request for identification", and I don't think that my mushrooms looked anything like these that 4rum posted about. Not that I know anything about mushrooms, mind you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 Yes... Pleurotus. Sometimes my mild dyslexia gets the better of me :-) The mushrooms seen in this thread are likely Pleurotus. But these are somewhat atypical for Oysters. Shape/color vary considerably for mushrooms in genus Pleurotus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feral Boy Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 A tip for Mushroom Observer -- propose a genus and species for every unknown you post. There are many people who will tell you you are wrong ... and usually propose an I.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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