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Gomphidius glutinosus?


Guest Vlad

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On 11/18/10 I found a mushroom that I have never seen before. It was growing in white pine woods in Central Massachusetts. The temperatures have been cold. It was frosty some nights though no hard freeze yet. It might be that cold temperatures prevented the mushroom from developing and releasing its spores? According to Mushrooms of Northeastern North America it is probably Gomphidius glutinosus since it is the only one they describe but it has no yellow at the base of the stem and the spore size is wrong. Have you seen anything like this? The Gel was very thick and slimy. It was like trying to hold on to a wet bar of soap :o)

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/1118102.htm

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/112010.htm

Vlad

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I am fairly certain the first photo shows Hygrophorus flavodiscus, a common late-season slimy pine-loving mushroom (in eastern North America) that has white spores. Second pic is probably the same, although I'm a bit less certain, as the gills appear to show a bit of darkness; probably because of the age of these mushrooms. Gomphidius has dark spores, dark gray or blackish.

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Thanks Dave,

These Yellow-centered Waxy Caps did not yield a spore print. The spore size is the right size for a Hygrophorus flavodiscus. What made me decide that it was a Gomphidius of some kind is that the transparent universal veil had a measurable thickness and I thought of it as a gel. Looking for mushrooms with a covering of gel led me to Gomphidius. I corrected the page

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/1118102.htm

Two days later I went to another site and found several more

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/112010.htm

They too did not produce a spore print.

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I had posted this on the introductions page but figured you might not have seen it there, Vlad."Hi Vlad and welcome to our community! Since you were young when you moved to the US, I'm curious if your parents did any mushroom hunting in Russia? I know it is a big deal pastime there so just wondering why it took you until 6 years ago to get into mushrooms.

It's a big deal with Italians as well and I used to run into huge families and groups of Italian Americans along the northern CA coast looking for Porcini. I actually learned a lot from them as they always found more than I ever did. I asked one guy to teach me what he was looking for and he took me back to an area where I'd already looked and we found a bunch that I hadn't even seen when I was there the first time. They always hunted with big sticks they could punch into the tall grass and listen for a thump. I never thought to even look in the tall grass clumps. I was more looking around trees and they were looking more out in the open. It was a great education for me being taught by people who grew up being carried on the backs of their parents as little children who learned from them at a very early age. The funny thing was, at the guy's house, there were gallon glass jars with dried porcini dating back to the 1950's that had never been eaten. I think they were more into finding them than actually USING them! lol They had literally gallons and gallons of dried porcini sitting there and inside the jars they had peppercorns and if I remember correctly, bay leaves."

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Mary and all,

I was born in Northern Caucasus, where it is flat, dry and grassland. My parents told me that there were very few mushrooms in the area and people did not have a custom of hunting for mushrooms. My family were sheep ranchers before the Communists took over. We left Russia in 1942 when I was 4 years old. We immigrated to USA in 1950 when I was 11 years old. Amarillo Texas was hot dry and flat just like our place in Russia. I do not remember seeing even one mushroom in the year we lived there.

I became interested in hunting mushrooms after I got married and lived in Brookfield MA. My mother-in-law was born in White Russia and had some experience hunting wild mushrooms. She introduced me to the hobby but I hesitated adopting her method. She did not appear to have any method. She went entirely by appearance of the mushroom as she remembered it in White Russia. That sounded kind of dangerous to me.

I stopped hunting mushrooms for a few years. I took up nature photography in particular wild flowers. Then in 2002 I found a fairy ring of large white mushrooms growing in about a 50 foot circle. I wanted to find out what that mushroom was called. I used the Internet to contact a member of the Boston Mycological Club and he identified the mushroom for me as being the Giant Clitocybe. I joined BMC for 3 years to learn the basics. I quit the club when they got irritated with my constant and repetitive question of “Is it edible?” At that time I was not interested in becoming a amateur mycologist.

I became friends with Russian Jews who came to this country when Communism started to fall apart. Some of these people are from Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and they are avid mushroom hunters. Most of them are well to do and they bought summer homes on Cape Cod, I think just so that they would be closer to the prime mushroom hunting spots in Massachusetts. They tended to make fun of my more scientific approach to mushroom identification. They called me the “Mushroom Professor”. A couple of them took me out and showed me some of their favored spots. They are not as secretive as Italians and Americans :o)

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Mary and all,

I was born in Northern Caucasus, where it is flat, dry and grassland. My parents told me that there were very few mushrooms in the area and people did not have a custom of hunting for mushrooms. My family were sheep ranchers before the Communists took over. We left Russia in 1942 when I was 4 years old. We immigrated to USA in 1950 when I was 11 years old. Amarillo Texas was hot dry and flat just like our place in Russia. I do not remember seeing even one mushroom in the year we lived there.

I became interested in hunting mushrooms after I got married and lived in Brookfield MA. My mother-in-law was born in White Russia and had some experience hunting wild mushrooms. She introduced me to the hobby but I hesitated adopting her method. She did not appear to have any method. She went entirely by appearance of the mushroom as she remembered it in White Russia. That sounded kind of dangerous to me.

I stopped hunting mushrooms for a few years. I took up nature photography in particular wild flowers. Then in 2002 I found a fairy ring of large white mushrooms growing in about a 50 foot circle. I wanted to find out what that mushroom was called. I used the Internet to contact a member of the Boston Mycological Club and he identified the mushroom for me as being the Giant Clitocybe. I joined BMC for 3 years to learn the basics. I quit the club when they got irritated with my constant and repetitive question of “Is it edible?” At that time I was not interested in becoming a amateur mycologist.

I became friends with Russian Jews who came to this country when Communism started to fall apart. Some of these people are from Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and they are avid mushroom hunters. Most of them are well to do and they bought summer homes on Cape Cod, I think just so that they would be closer to the prime mushroom hunting spots in Massachusetts. They tended to make fun of my more scientific approach to mushroom identification. They called me the “Mushroom Professor”. A couple of them took me out and showed me some of their favored spots. They are not as secretive as Italians and Americans :o)

Fantastic story! Thanks for sharing.

Especially Italians. I think the reason is that Italia is a small country (California sized) and, at least when my ancestors came (mostly in the early 1900's, but another rush in the 1950's), everybody in Italia hunted them.

In Italia they have size restrictions on porcini now. They must be at least x cm, or you may not pick them. (I want to say 4cm, but don't quote me).

Relatives over there actually couldn't believe our stories about how many we would find. Until they came for a visit and saw for themselves.

Most are honest and admit that our porcini are as good as theirs (if not better).

Thanks again for sharing your story.

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Luigi,

That is interesting that our Kings taste as good as those in Italia! You live and hunt in California? It appears to me that the Kings in California look similar to those in Europe. The once in the Northeast look different. My Russian friends think that the Kings in Russia had better aroma and taste.

Here is a picture of the last one I found this year. The weather was dry and the mushroom was cracked from the dryness.

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/102610.htm

Bill Neill took this picture of a King he found somewhere in California. He has his foot out to show the size of the mushroom. I wonder what size his shoe is?

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/interestingbo/king.jpg

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That's an interesting story, Vlad. Thank you!

I spent a few weeks on a fishing trip to Russia in 1991. We were in search of Atlantic salmon and we flew into Leningrad for the first part of the trip. We spent a few nights in the city and then took a charter flight to Kirovsk and then boarded a military helicopter to fly to the fishing camp on the Umba River on the Kola Peninsula. We usually got to the fishing by boat up the river from camp, but there were a few times we would use the boat to go somewhere and then walk along paths through the woods to get to other fishing holes. I was always looking for mushrooms along the trail but don't really recall finding much of anything. I guess at that point I'd been interested in mycology for about 9 years but mostly just edibles. We were there in June so I don't think it was really the right time of year to be looking for much of anything. Too bad I wasn't there in August or September. I think the place would have been crawling with mushrooms.

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Vlad wrote:

... She introduced me to the hobby but I hesitated adopting her method. She did not appear

to have any method. She went entirely by appearance of the mushroom as she remembered

it in White Russia ...

...They tended to make fun of my more scientific approach to mushroom identification...

Being more careful keeps you alive. It's strategies like this that get people who move to

another country into the headlines ... sometimes posthumously. It's always good to depend

on much more than "it looks like what I found back there", until you are familiar with what

actually grows in your new home.

There are also definitely differences in style between clubs. Some are much more open to

"pot-hunters" than others. That can change over time, then again you may get more interested

in the science later also. I'm also enjoying taking pictures of my finds -- I have a fairly

good camera with a great macro function, which has been very helpful.

Good food, interesting science, beautiful pictures ... who can ask for more?

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