Appalachian chantrelles and Jack-o-lanterns?

[my_silly_M]

If either of these are chantrelles then they are my first, so I want to make sure on the ID.  There are two mushrooms in this post, off-white ones (large and small, but I think they are the same mushroom) and orange ones. 

The off-white ones were growing on decomposing downed branches in a hardwood forest, the small ones (ie, <1in caps) growing directly from the branches while the large ones (~2-3in caps) were growing from the leaf mulch or buried wood.  I think these may be Cantharellus appalachiensis, thoughts?  This is in central virginia. The small ones give a white spore-print, the large ones no sporeprint (too old?). First picture is the only one of a large one. Caps have some indentation in the center.

The orange ones were growing in bunches from the root-hole area of a downed tree (hickory I think but maybe oak).  I thought they'd be sulfur tuft but then realized the gills look like they are decurrent when I got home. The cap I left out over night didn't give a sporeprint, I'll try again.  The flesh is fairly orange and some orange liquid comes out when crushed. Caps show no indentation. I'm thinking these are jack-o-lanterns, as they look to have true gills and grew in bunches around dead tree roots.

Any help IDing these is much appreciated - thanks!

[Dave W]

The orange ones are most definitely Jack 'o Lantern (Omphalotus illudens). 

The first group of photos... I don't think Cantharellus. For one, growth on wood would be unusual in this genus. Also, the fertile surface looks like true gills. Cantharellus species have fertile surface smooth to wrinkled to "pseudo-gills". 

[my_silly_M]

I took some closer looks at the first ones (pale white/golden) and read some more as I'm still learning how to distinguish false and true gills.  I'm pretty sure what I found is Gerronema strombodes. Michael Kuo's first photo here is a ringer for my finds:http://www.mushroomexpert.com/gerronema_strombodes.html  and the smaller ones looks similar to the small ones he has pictured.  I'm surprised these aren't mentioned in articles I've read about Cantharellus look-a-likes, but maybe they don't look similar to most people and/or they are too rare to generally mention.  Gerronema strombodes aren't edible. The wood habitat and thin stems also match my mushrooms.

[Dave W]

I agree about the first photo showing G. strombodes. I think the ones (not the Jacks) in subsequent photos may be yet another species. Gills look different (but this may just be because they are younger than the one in the first photo). 

[my_silly_M]

Yes, the small white/golden ones do have pretty different looking gills.  Kuo describes finding that the young ones look pretty different than the old ones but doesn't detail the differences.  Could easily be a different species though.

[Dave W]

Mushroom species often undergo significant morphological changes as per maturity, and in some cases there are available descriptions of the different stages. With the type(s) of mushrooms seen in photos 1-4, a spore print color would be useful, but probably not a way to be certain they are the same/different. A micro view of the spores at 400x gets you better info. 

Here's another idea for some of the smallish white-gilled ones, Lentinellus micheneri. http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lentinellus_micheneri.html I think I see some unevenness along the gill edges. 

 

[my_silly_M]

Ah, yes, they do look just like the Lentinellus micheneri, the the growth of these out of the wood was identical to Kuo's pictures.  I already threw them out so I can't check for the uneven gill edges, though in my pictures they do seem to be a little uneven.  The sporeprints on those small ones was white.

[Feral Boy]

Chanterelles never grow from wood.  They also don't grow in clumps of greater than perhaps two or three.

[vitog]

Never say never when discussing mushrooms.  Chanterelles may not grow from wood, but they often grow through rotting wood if it happens to get in the way.  They then appear to be growing from that wood.  And they don't usually grow in large clumps, but early this summer I found several tight clumps of Chanterelles with up to a couple of dozen caps.  The clumping feature may have been related to the unusual timing of the fruiting.  I picked the earliest ones in late June, the earliest date ever in over 40 years of picking them in the Vancouver area.