Stropharia aurantiaca

[CapAndBracket]

In grass beside shrubbery that has woodchip mulch, the name is as per many field guides, seems this is another species that has gone through many name changes i'm sure Chris will have them memorised

These are a bit tricky in that many guides show the young fruit bodies with white gills, the photo above are aged and a hand lense reveals the gills are still very light in colour but the ripe spores are near black hence the very dark appearance.

Cheers J.P.

[cybershot]

Nice one JP

Found these in similar mulched environment in a park in St Albans last year when foraying with Juliejam (She may still have unposted images)

Mycokey has them thus:

images of "Agaricus" ceres (=S. aurantiaca ss.auct.)

And the BC has this to say:

"Stropharia aurantiaca (Cooke) M. Imai, J. Fac. Agric. Hokkaido Imp. Univ. 43: 267 (1938)

Agaricus squamosus f. aurantiacus Cooke, Handb. Brit. fung. Edn 2 (London): 199 (1887)
Stropharia percevalii var. aurantiaca (Cooke) Sacc., Syll. fung. (Abellini) 5: 1016 (1887)
Stropharia squamosa var. aurantiaca (Cooke) Massee, Brit. Fung.-Fl. (London) 1: 402 (1892)

Habitat: On soil and decayed woodchips or mulch in gardens and parks, also (rarely) in more natural woodland.

Notes: Occasional but widespread and increasingly reported. Probably an alien which is now spreading rapidly, facilitated by the increasing use of woodchip mulch in parks and gardens. We here adopt the generally accepted interpretation of this name, but it is likely that the taxon Cooke illustrated was in fact S. squamosa var. thrausta. There appears to be no appropriate epithet for this species, which may need to be described as new."

REF: Checklist of the British & Irish Basidiomycota