Armillaria sp?

[cybershot]

Found today on top of a large woodchip pile I am trying to pin down what I think are Armillaria sp(p) ??.

The colour variation is still confusing especially with regard the very deep wine coloured specimens with the yellow gills. Drying out to dark brown and revealing a yellow ground where the scales rubbed off. The caps were 1.5-3cm and the stems 2-5cm, and as Nick pointed out from the photos very densely clustered. More accustomed to seeing them on stumps of trees rather than on a pile of woodchips. C&D's illustration of A. tabescens comes closest to the images of the ochre coloured specimens but there is clear evidence of a ring on some stems.

I would appreciate some help with these.

David

[flaxton]

Plumbs and Custard David

Mal

[cybershot]

Originally Posted by flaxton

Plumbs and Custard David

Mal

Funnily enough Mal, when I first saw images of these before going out today and locating them myself I sent this reply on another site:

"Re: Southwood Woodlands

The "deeply yellow lamellae and a wine-red squamose-floccose pileus" of images 3331/3337 brings Tricholomopsis rutilans immediately to mind but can't make anything else fit unless they've overwintered on conifer chippings."

Now having seen them in the flesh I'm no longer convinced.

David

P.S. Hopefully I'll get a line on it soon

[cybershot]

Thanks to Leif I have now got a line to Gymnopilus dilepis

"A beautiful toadstool which is bright purple when young, (resembling Tricholompsis rutilans but with a ring), rapidly fading to orange-brown. Originally from South East Asia where it grows on old coconut stumps, it was possibly introduced with coir imported for horticultural use as a peat replacement."
Ref: BioImages (UK)

David

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by cybershot

Thanks to Leif I have now got a line to Gymnopilus dilepis

"A beautiful toadstool which is bright purple when young, (resembling Tricholompsis rutilans but with a ring), rapidly fading to orange-brown. Originally from South East Asia where it grows on old coconut stumps, it was possibly introduced with coir imported for horticultural use as a peat replacement."
Ref: BioImages (UK)

David

Brilliant lead. Surely couldn't be T. rutilans at that size and in that formation.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by cybershot

Thanks to Leif I have now got a line to Gymnopilus dilepis

"A beautiful toadstool which is bright purple when young, (resembling Tricholompsis rutilans but with a ring), rapidly fading to orange-brown. Originally from South East Asia where it grows on old coconut stumps, it was possibly introduced with coir imported for horticultural use as a peat replacement."
David

fascinating . . . here is another image (copyright Mycologist) from an article re fungi on oil-palms:



looks promising

Chris

[mollisia]

Hello,

looking at the picture and haven't read the thread I was immediately thinking of a Gymnopilus. And you obviousely come to this conclusion as well. Strange enough, that it grows outside, as all the purple scaled species are of tropical origin. In Central Europe we only know them from green housese and flower pots.
Be aware, that there are many purple scaled Gymnopilus species in the tropics and most of them are not yet described. This group urgently needs a revision!

Certainly something you should send to Kew ...

best regards,
Andreas