LYOPHYLLUM?

[JOHNY]

These grow in a patch of forest where we walk behind my house in northwest Ontario (north of Minnesota). Surrounding trees are Aspen and Black Spruce.

They show up late June every year. Many in clusters as pictured, a few are singles. Seem to sprout from ground. I've not seem any association with buried dead wood.

Faint white spore print.

I'm hoping they are Lyophyllum decastes Fried Chicken Mushroom.  But enough uncertainty to not eat any yet.

[GCn15]

Seem very light colored and wrong time of year for Lyophyllum Decastes.

[Dave W]

The name Lyophyllum decastes likely represents a group of related species. At my latitude --NE PA-- this/these type/types appear most often in fall. But, they are also known to occur in spring, generally after morel season. There has only been one time when I found what I IDed as L. descastes in spring, and those mushrooms looked pretty much like the ones seen here, whitish,  terrestrial, clustered, without partial veil, and white spored. I hesitate to claim high confidence in IDing these as L. decastes. But I have no alternative ID proposal. 

[GCn15]

Geographically we come from very similar type of country. Canadian Shield, boreal forest. I have never seen spring or white L.Decastes. Not saying it's impossible but I would be very hesitant to call them that.

[JOHNY]

Following up from previous post.

This summer was dry until a very heavy rain 10 days ago. The mushrooms emerged and I let them grow a bit bigger. As the age, they are a pale brown. Definite white spore print. I was convinced enough that they are Lyophyllum decastes that I fried them and ate a single bite. Very tasty. And still feeling fine many hours later. We'll eat the rest tomorrow.

[Dave W]

Johny, has there been a chilly night lately up there in Ontario? Champignons du Quebec says L. decastes occurs June through October. 

Did a little online research. Looks like there's a an alternative possibility here. There's another species that produces white-spored white mushrooms that occur in terrestrial clusters. C du Q mentions it as a look-alike species for L. decastes. Has gone --at one time or another-- by one of three different names, Lyophyllum connatum, Clitocybe connata, Leucocybe connata.   https://mushroomobserver.org/31245  C du Q lists its season as August through October. 

[JOHNY]

Leucocybe connata looks like a possibility.

What ever it is, seems like an obscure mushroom, in a region far remote from the traditional range.

In other words, DNA trumps morphology but those of us who like to eat mushrooms can only rely on slightly uncertain morphology.

12 hours after my first bite and several bites afterwards, I still feel fine. Whatever they species identity, it is yummy and we will eat it every year it shows up.

 I still like the "L. decastes" variant ID

1 hour ago, Dave W said:

Johny, has there been a chilly night lately up there in Ontario? Champignons du Quebec says L. decastes occurs June through October. 

 

It is a myth that we are cold all year. Summers are hot enough to ripen fully ripen chilli peppers and melons in my garden.

We have central continental climate. Hot over +30C in June July August and cold -30C Dec Jan Feb.

These mushrooms showed up during a hot dry summer and a recent heavy rain fall. The lowest temp we have had is ~10C (50F) since late May.

[vitog]

Some fall mushrooms are easily fooled when cool, wet weather follows relatively warmer weather.  It doesn't have to be cold, just cooler than the preceding temperatures.

[Dave W]

It doesn't matter whether one relies upon old fungal classifications that tended to lump species together or modern molecular-driven taxonomy that tends to create new genera (or at least reorganize existing ones). The mushrooms don't care what you call them. Either they are edible or not. And in some cases reliance upon morphology is indeed uncertain, as there may be a toxic species that closely resembles some edible one. Since the Quebec website documents L. connatum, I assume that it is found in Canada. Moreover, C du Q says it is "common". 

For some time the name Lyophyllum decastes has been considered to represent a species complex. However, in this case there appears to be a long-standing recognition of different species. The name "connatum/connatus" dates back to 1808 and the species name "decastes" dates back to 1818. I looked for a suggestion on C du Q that would provide a way to tell the difference. They recommend a chemical test (FeSO4). The spore dimensions provided for connatum and decastes are different, the former being 5-7x3-4 and the latter 5-7x5-6. This is significant, as the L. decastes spores would then appear to be nearly round (subglobose) and the connatum spores ellipsoid. MushroomExpert also reports decastes spores as "round or nearly so."