A few unknowns from the last couple of days

[lauriek]

Its just starting to get dark when I get home now so I have time for a quick 20 minute forage before it's too dark to see anything apart from the shaggy ink caps in the middle of a field! I've found a few and I've no idea what they are, any tips appreciated!!

First fungi;



I'm pretty sure these all show the same species, they seem to start off as in top right pic, go through a stage like bottom right and end up like left. (hope that makes sense!) Sorry I forgot to get a picture of the gills..... The caps are approx 1cm when fully grown. Growing under a yew tree

--

Second fungi;




Obviously a bolete of some kind, doesn't colour change when damaged (didn't have a knife so broke by hand) - about 6cm across. There were /loads/ of these here last year so I hope it's an edible one!!

Not obvious if it's growing with any particular trees but there are some cypress nearby...

--

Third fungi;




Growing under hedgerow in amongst a lot of leaf litter, large beech tree nearby. (by no means only tree though!!) Cap approx 3.5cm across.

--

Any tips on IDs for any of these are hugely appreciated!!

I've got a great selection of fungi growing round here but also a huge selection of trees, so it's normally next to impossible for me to tell exactly which tree's root system something is growing on...

[sarah64]

Hi there
I'm no expert but pics 2 and 3 look like Boletus chrysenteron, the Red Cracking Bolete to me. According to Michael Jordan's book (yes i got my book out ) its colour is unchanging when cut or slightly blue above tubes where cut. Its edible if it is the Red Cracking Bolete.

[lauriek]

Hi Sarah,

Having had another look at Roger Phillips book, I think you are right! Many thanks for that!

Does anyone have any clues on the other two?

[Fungus Ken]

The first is likely to be a Mottlegill or Panaeolus. These grow in grassland and have very dark spores that ripen unevenly on the gills leading to the characteristic mottled pattern.

Next time you find a mushroom that looks similar to this one, tip it up and look at the gills, preferably with a hand lens. If you see the mottling this helps to narrow it down to genus.

Your bolete is one in the group around the "Red Cracking Bolete" but does not look like Boletus chrysenteron to me. See the recent thread linked below on the other possibilities.

What boletus is this?

Your third has me puzzled but looks like a Collybia - somewhat like a pale Butter Cap.

Ken

[Leif]

The second is Xerocomus chrysenteron and the last is almost certainly Collybia butyracea var asema, though some just lump them all together as C. butyracea.

At first I though the first might be Macrocystidia cucumis, but I now I doubt it. No idea!

[Fungus Ken]

I can see what you mean about Macrocystidia cucumis. If only the photos came with a smell we'd be able to confirm one way or another. Failing that it really would help if people described whether their finds had a particular smell and a photo of the gills would really help.

I'm not convinced that the bolete is Boletus chrysenteron - I think it could for example be Boletus porosporus - but to be sure you would need to do the microscopy. Unless you have considerable experience of this group it's easy to lump them all together under one name. There are a lot more species that people are not seeing because they don't know they are there.

Ken

[lauriek]

Sorry my bad not getting the gills on the first one, I'll take another look tomorrow, if there are any left I'll have a sniff and photo the underneath!

Thanks for the help everyone!!