Help with ID, please

[solus]

I know it's not the best of pictures but this was a single bracket (with another one a foot or so away) and I'm as certain as I can be that it was fairly fresh and not faded, white being the "proper" colour. Roughly 3 inches long by about 2 wide (very rough estimation, that is) and it was in a failrly dark location and I didn't want to use flash as I knew that would flare out what little detail there was on the top surface. The second pic shows the broken off piece from the other fruiting body placed upside down (pore side up) on the first.

I can't find anything on Postia tephroleuca - it's not in Phillips or Jordan, as far as I can see?

I had been wondering about Tyromyces chioneus (Jordan)?

Chris - Thanks for your suggestion of a clitocybe species for the first one - I must admit I was hoping I'd found The Goblet but I wasn't too happy about the not-as-inrolled-as-expected margin - failed again!

[KeenTeen17]

Originally Posted by solus

I can't find anything on Postia tephroleuca - it's not in Phillips or Jordan, as far as I can see?

I had been wondering about Tyromyces chioneus (Jordan)?

I think P. tephroleuca is also known as tyromyces lacteus
Its in my Photographing Fungi in the Field Book but isn't mentioned in any of my others.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

Well do you know what? Looking at the first image, I'd say that KT's suggestion of Laetiporus sulphureus is pretty damn good- He's correct that they do discolour to this extent, particularly when rained on and the structure of the bracket is very similar to that I would expect to see of this species. OK, the second photograph might eliminate thoughts of this species, but I support KT's suggestion and plucking up the courage to say so So well in KT.

hi

I'm getting a bit worried about ID'ing old, washed out and rained on fungi . . . it's a bit like trying to name a flowering plant that a platoon of squaddies has marched over repeatedly . . .

I remember many years ago being on a course with Roy Watling and having it rammed into our skulls that

(a) a single fruit-body is not a fungus, you need at least three or four (in various stages of development) . . . . and
(b) once something has started to go over - forget it - or start to study the next generation of fungi which are attacking it

I'm not saying don't post these things, but we need to be very careful about giving names to increasingly un-nameable collections

I would welcome comments

Chris

[Andy Overall]

Originally Posted by solus

Went for a walk in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, yesterday (20th November) and found these, which I would appreciate some help in identifying, please.

I do have a sort of an idea - or several - but have frequently (er... usually!) been wrong so would rather not put ideas into anyone's head at this stage.

First one:
Growing on a small grassy bank beside a rough gravelly area until recently used for car parking, in a sort of clearing area with rough grass and scattered oak and beech trees and not far fom mature conifers. I'm hopeless with smell but it was "mushroomy". There were half a dozen or so a loose group.




Second one - a white "rubbery" bracket growing on the roots of a long-fallen small tree which (from the similarly-sized trees immediately surrounding it) could have been either birch or some sort of pine. I realise that not being able to identifiy the host species is no help at all! When I broke off a piece, to photograph the pore surface, it was rather unpleasantly wet and I thought I could see a faint line of blue colour at the base of the pore tubes... but I can't see this in the picture. Again, there was a vaguely mushroomy sort of smell.






I am seriously considering going through my "Fungus Fotos" folder and re-submitting some of my photos from 2006 (when I first got interested in this mushrooming lark) which I know are mis-identified (by me, I hasten to add!) or remain unidentified! I was very keen to have some sort of label for them then, although I have subsequently learned from everyone here that that is often nigh on impossible!

I would would go with Postia lactea for the white bracket and not old Laetiporus as the fungus in the picture is clearly a fresh specimen, which you can tell from the tubes and the flesh on display.

Andy

[solus]

I'm ever so slightly upset by Chris's comment - if he is referring to my photos, which I believe to show fresh and not "old, washed out and rained on fungi".

Believe me, I am the first to walk on past bedraggled, mushy specimens having already learned that there is no hope of properly identifying them - I tend to do much the same with a lot of those little brown things, too. I have posted some things in the past that have been a bit beyond their "best by" date and soon discovered I was wasting my and everyone else's time doing so.

I may not post here all that frequently compared with others; I am (sadly!) a few years beyond being a "Keen Teen", but am still enthusiastic about what I do find when I am out and about and truly apprecaite the help and suggestions as to possible IDs that have been provided here by those with far more knowledge and experience than I will ever achieve. Following the suggestion that my specimen was perhaps elderly and washed out (bit like me, then!) I did try to give a bit more information in Post 11 above, which I fear has become invisible.


Andy: Thanks!

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by solus

I'm ever so slightly upset by Chris's comment - if he is referring to my photos, which I believe to show fresh and not "old, washed out and rained on fungi".

no no no!

not at all aimed at you and sorry if it was so interpreted!

as Andy O has said it is clearly a fresh specimen; my comment was meant as a general comment and perhaps in retrospect not a very helpful one even then

sheepishly yours

Chris

[kiltoncomp]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

hi

I'm getting a bit worried about ID'ing old, washed out and rained on fungi . . . it's a bit like trying to name a flowering plant that a platoon of squaddies has marched over repeatedly . . .

I remember many years ago being on a course with Roy Watling and having it rammed into our skulls that

(a) a single fruit-body is not a fungus, you need at least three or four (in various stages of development) . . . . and
(b) once something has started to go over - forget it - or start to study the next generation of fungi which are attacking it

I'm not saying don't post these things, but we need to be very careful about giving names to increasingly un-nameable collections

I would welcome comments

Chris

i think its important to be able to id fungi,from infant through to the old washed out ones,as there can be great diffences in the appearance of the fungi through these stages,
like KT i was fooled by an old washed out laetiporus,which i took to be something quite differnt until i was pointed in the right direction by someone with much greater experiance and knowledge,
onother occasion was a clump of Collybia maculata, that looked very much like a clump of Armillaria at first sight,as they were a uniform brown colour ,had i not seen these through their growth cycle i would have been wondering what these were for some time!
as the debate on Lepista in other posts show,their is a big differnce from the young ones to the mature ones, that seem to have all the experts differing in their opinons

Brian.

[solus]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

sheepishly yours

Chris

No problem! But I thought I was up late - can't you sleep???