Collecting for the pot is fun.
But finding new species is exciting.
Having spent much time exploring neighborhood woods, I have a pretty good idea as for when
and where I could expect what.
But the downside is, we don't get to see a lot of new species.
So the debate has always been, should we revisit our local spots for the hundredth time to
meet some good old fella or, shall we get into some further, unfamiliar woods,
risking not seeing much.
the choice becomes easier when there's no trade off.
When Maryland is dry and the local woods are not very productive, we would give Virginia
or DC a try.
There, we pick somewhere right next to the Potomac River, because the close vicinity
to the big river would lend mushrooms enough moisture to grow.
The other side of the river is usually indeed very rewarding.
Last time we found three species there that we hadn't seen before.
They are not necessarily rare, but I just don't get to see them around in Maryland.
So sometimes, go to somewhere you haven't been to, and you may be surprised.
Okay, in the rest of the video I am going to show you the several steps I went through
to identify these mushrooms.
This little thing is now on our weird mushroom list.
Its shape stroke me as some sort of stinkhorn mushrooms but I don't see the typical dark
spore masses that a stinkhorn should have.
Instead, I notice this little case or ballon thing on top of the stem.
This structure reminds me of a puffball mushroom, the spores of which are enclosed in such case
and, when a puffball gets mature, the case opens up thus the powdery spores can be carried
away by wind.
After the preliminary identification, I leave the rest to google.
Basically I just try some combinations of key words that describe the features of the
this fungi.
I then click on images, do a quick browse to if see anything looks familiar.
And,
this guy looks Close enough.
So let's do some more research based on its Latin name, Calostoma cinnabarinum.
Click in wiki, but,ur, the image here doesn't really resemble our sample, which seems to
be much lighter and yellower.
So go back to google, click on images to see more pictures of Calostoma cinnabarinum, try
to find images that look more like the sample.
When found something closer, click in to see if any new name pops up.
Here we go, Calostoma lutescens.
This is it.
It turn out that this fungi does have a common name, pretty mouth puffball.
How accurate.
By the way, one good thing about such nontypical mushroom is that, you may not see them a lot,
but it is relatively easy to capture their features with a few words.
Hence several tries on google may give the right answer.
And this second fungi, I was actually very excited to see them, thinking they were something
I long expected to find.
Sulphur tuft was what I thought, which was a poisonous mushroom.
Growing from dead wood, in nice clusters, and with grayish attached gills, all seemed
to fit, until I saw another, younger cluster.
Then I realized something quite important that I just missed.
See the beautiful brick red color of the cap?
It's more discernible on younger specimens.
They're brick cap mushrooms.
The brick cap and the Sulphur Tuft are two species of the same Hypholoma genus.
Thus, they share the same structure and habitat.
But the giveaway is their colors.
The brick cap has a brick red cap, and the Sulphur Tuft has a sulphur-colored, or yellowish
cap.
Also, the brick cap has grayish gills whereas the Sulphur Tuft's gills can take on a greenish
hue.
Both species yield purple brown spore prints because they share the same genus.
Provided I've never heard of the brick cap nor sulphur tuft, I will combine its key features,
reddish cap, purple brown spore sprint, grow in clusters from woods and then run a google
search.
And I won't be surprised if I find the answer within the first couple of tries.
This third guy is absolutely a big surprise.
From afar, I thought that was yet another cluster of brick caps, somewhat discolored
though.
However, my wife, who is more sensible to colors, insisted that she saw some yellowish
hue so her guesses were the jack-o'-lantern or the pholitoa mushroom.
When we got closer and got a better look at the caps and the structure, we became increasingly
uncertain.
They indeed look alike pholitoas, but the cap is smooth and without scales.
So we eliminate that possibility right away.
They resemble jack-o-lantern a lot too, except for two things: first, the cap color is too
yellowish, but jack-o-lantern is on the orangish side.
And second, the mushroom grows too neat and too small.
Mature jack-o-lanterns tend to go wild: they can be very large and tend to have wavy margins.
Nevertheless, these two differences ain't enough, because both could well be affected
by natural forces.
But soon enough, we found the third and the most significant clue when we check the under
cap.
If you're not familiar with the jack-o-lantern, this is how it
looks like.
And this, is our sample.
See the difference here?
Correct, the jack o' lantern has decurrent gills running down the stems.
Whereas for this unknown guy, the gills are somewhere between attached and free.
The top part is kinda attached to the stem and the bottom part is free from the stem.
Natural forces can't change the pattern of gills, so they can't be the jack-o-lantern.
Also, see this?
This is a ring zone, which indicates the existence of a frail partial veil.
Some partial veil can be quite sturdy and leave a full ring on the mushroom's stem.
and some partial veil are quite delicate and easy to fall off, leaving only remnants on
the stem which then captures the spores and forms a band on the stem.
Remember, the jack-o'-lantern will never have a ring or ring zone.
Its stem is bare.
Besides, here, you see the mushroom has already kinda made a spore print on the cap of another
mushroom.
It takes on an orangish-brown color, whereas jack o lantern's spore print is pale yellow.
So, yellow convex cap, attached gills, ring zone, growing from dead wood, with these key
words I search on google, but the results include everything ranging from brick caps
to honeys to jack o lanterns and to pholiotas.
Nothing really looks like our sample.
Indeed, there are just Too many mushrooms that fit the description.
So the original key words have to be refined.
First you need to take off some too general description, such as growing from dead wood.
Then, add the spore print color, because this information can get you to, or at least closer
to the right genus.
As for how to do a spore print, just place a fresh specimen on a piece of white paper
and wait for two to three hours.
Thirdly, if you can think of any lookalikes, definitely include that in you search because
other people may think the same and include this information in their image descriptions.
So, I use jack-o'-lantern lookalike, ring zone, brown spore print as the new combination,
and I find a close-enough image with this latin name: Gymnopilus junonius, which is
used to be called Gymnopilus spectabilis.
Common name: Big laughing Gym.
This mushroom is both psychoactive and poisonous.
The two are not the same thing.
It means this mushroom can get you sick, physically, beyond causing hallucinations.
Also, now you see why it is called the big laughing Jim not laughing Tom.
Gym, is short for Gymnopilus, which is the genus. and junonius is the species.
Laughing, of course, refers to its psychoactive properties.
Now we find the Gymnopilus junonius, but the identification doesn't end here.
The question that follows is, how do I know what I got is indeed the junonius speices,
not some sister species?
You know that under a genus there are multiple species.
These species can look amazingly like, as the American Caesar's and many other species
in the Amanita genus.
Or, these species can differ greatly in terms of size, color, and edibility.
A case in point would be the edible brick cap and the poisonous sulphur tuft that we
just discussed.
If you are a mushroom lover, or, if you collect for the pot, you probably wouldn't and shouldn't
stop at the genus.
You want to know which particular species you are dealing with.
Let's check what species the Gymnopilus genus has.
See the link at the bottom of the page?
Click on it, and you got a whole list of Gymnopilus mushrooms, and with just a brief browse I
find several species that could be justifiably called big laughing Gym or at least, big Gym.
See, deciding on the Genus is easy, but getting into species is much tricker.
Sometimes a microscopic examination, if not a DNA test, is required.
But this is not to say macro-level observations and judgement are totally futile.
After reading the description on wiki and Googling the images based on the Latin name
I got, I start to think my sample is not the Gymnopilus junoius, which seems to be significantly
darker and heftier.
wiki points to another possibility: Gymnopilus ventricosus.
This latter species is said often mistaken for the junonius, but, it contains no psilocybin
therefore is not psychoactive.
The pictures of Gymopilus ventricosus look about right.
but this species grows in pacific northwest and on conifer wood.
Well, I live in the East, and I am sure I found them on a hard wood.
So it couldn't be the ventricosus.
After more research, mainly on Michael Kuo's mushroom expert website, my favorite mushroom
website by the way, I came to this species: Gymnopilus luteus.
Dr. Kuo writes: "It is limited to the hardwood forest and of eastern North America, and features
yellow colors as well as a slender stem."
Now everything lines up.
Except for one last thing: wiki mentions this species stains green where bruised.
Well, if there was green color changing going on a yellow mushroom, I probably would
notice it.
Dr. Kuo says it staining brown.
Could be.
But definitely not immediately like within 30 seconds nor that obvious.
With time, a lot of mushroom gets darker where injured, and I am not sure if it is accurate
to call that a bruise.
Anyway, I am not going to be too obsessed with this criterion.
After all, not every source mentions the bruise effect and at least most of these google images
under Gymnopilus luteus look just like my sample.
I can't speak with absolute certainty because this is my very first time seeing this mushroom
and I am not familiar with the rest species from the same genus.
But there's a pretty good chance that this one is a Gymnopilus luteus.
Unlike the Gymnopilus junoius that is both psychoactive and poisonous, and the Gymnopilus
ventricosus which is not psychoactive, Gymnopilus luteus is Psychoactive but Not poisonous,
although I doubt anyone would want to eat it because it is absolutely very bitter.
So it's a quite interesting mushroom to know and I wish I found it earlier so I can
put it in the jack-o-lantern video and compare the two.
Chanterelles, honeys and ringless honeys all resemble the poisonous jack-o-lantern but
they pale next to this big laugh gym, which I think is almost a spitting image of the
jack o lantern, until you flip the cap.
But it's never too late.
And I'll generalize the similarities and differences of the two.
Similarities include: both can take on a brownish color especially when they are old, and both
grow in clusters from wood.
Some main differences are: the jack o-lantern has decurrent gills and a bare stem, and the
big laughing gym has attached gills and a ring zone on the stem.
The Jack o-lantern yields a very pale yellow spore print wheres the print of the big laughing
gym is orangish brown.
Also, the jack-o-lantern is on the orangish side, and this big laughing gym is more yellowish
and have light yellow flesh.
Lastly, the Gym has a hollow stem whereas that of jack o lantern, solid.
Okay so, this is how I identify unknown mushrooms.
I am that kind of person who prefers reading maps to asking people for directions.
And google and some other good mushroom websites are my maps.
If this method is not your type and you feel more comfortable consulting an expert, definitely
do that.
But google is always by your side and responsive, and usually you'll find a whole lot more
information from it, if you ask the right questions.
Oaky, thanks for watching, and see you next time.
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