Baffled again, ID help please.

[Gerel]

Hi

I found these last week in an upland pasture and I have got nowhere with them .

There was this large clump



and a few individual fruit bodies of the same sort scattered over the surrounding area. The caps were up to 10cm across and they had a large ring on the stipe. No particular smell other than 'mushroom'.



Judging by where these two overlapped the spore print would be white or at least very pale.



Despite their rather desicated appearance they were fairly fresh, only a day or two old however they had collapsed into dark brown sludge when I went back a couple of days later.

Although they were growing in grass it is possible that they were associated with trees as I found them either side of a hedgerow.

Thanks for looking

Steve

[flaxton]

Steve
They look to me like the fungi of the moment and appearing everywhere - Armillaria the Honey fungus. White spores scurfy cap with a ring all fit.

Mal

[thebeard]

certainly looks like it! saw yet more today, (EVERYWHERE!). They seem pretty variable though, some have scaling on the cap and stipe whereas a lot seem to have none. theres a clump growing just up the road i live on, a very busy very urban road in the centre of nottingham, shows they'll pop up pretty much anywhere!

[Gerel]

Cheers,

did consider Armillaria, white spores plus ring pointed that way, I just convinced myself that the caps looked wrong compared with other Honey Fungus I've seen. Haven't seen the such streaky ones before or such mottled stems. Still, as has been said before they're a variable species/group.

And they weren't close to mature trees, although that particular section of hedge is not healthy. At least they aren't in the garden.

Steve

[fairplay]

Hi Steve,

I'm satisfied they are Honey Fungus.

HF doesn't just kill trees (of all ages), they will quite happily attack hedges, especially Privet and Rosemary.

Neil.