Agaricus (?) on wood chip.

[Gerel]

Hi,

This was one of a group of about twenty caps growing on a pile of wood chippings (hedge thinnings, principally hazel, hawthorn and blackthorn). Max. cap size C. 100mm. Spore print dark brown. No obvious smell. Young caps viscous on top surface.

It looks to me like an Agaricus sp. but I don't know of any that grow on woodchip.



Any thoughts?

Steve

[BROCSMAN]

Agrocybe rivulosa?

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by BROCSMAN

Agrocybe rivulosa?

without a doubt

Chris

[Gerel]

Many thanks both,

I looked at Agrocybe in Phillips, but my copy is way older than the first British discription of A. rivulosa so unsuprisingly its not in there.

(I feel better having read the WAB A-Z entry which says something along the lines of easily mistaken for Agaricus. ).

Anyone know how it has spread so quickly? The chippings here were from the hedge surrounding the field so the spores weren't imported on the wood.


Steve

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Gerel

Anyone know how it has spread so quickly? The chippings here were from the hedge surrounding the field so the spores weren't imported on the wood.


Steve

A very good question; at the start I think people thought that it might be being spread by chipping machines, but I have seen it occurring on a site where the forester said that the chips had been made with a brand-new machine on that very site - it also occasionally makes use of other cellulose sources - see the thread When is woodchip not woodchip?

so it's presumably just the wind . . . . a salutory thought is that there may be Agrocybe rivulosa spores in the rooms of the WABbers reading this and therefore even in their lungs

best

C

[BROCSMAN]

Who knows? I was there when Geoffrey Kibby found it for the first time in Shropshire in 2007. Since then I've seen it in mid-Wales. I suppose it just rides the wind.

[Gerel]

I suppose it is not that surprising for it to be wind bourne, it just seems almost incredible for it to go from nowhere to country wide in six years. Judging from that thread Chris linked to, not being overly fussy about substrate must help.

We are in the middle of mid-Wales BROCSMAN where we don't tend to get even the most aggressive new arrivals until long after much of the rest of the country (ragwort only reached us three years ago and I've yet to see a Harlequin ladybird here) so I don't really expect to see newcomers in these parts.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Gerel

I suppose it is not that surprising for it to be wind bourne, it just seems almost incredible for it to go from nowhere to country wide in six years. Judging from that thread Chris linked to, not being overly fussy about substrate must help.

We are in the middle of mid-Wales BROCSMAN where we don't tend to get even the most aggressive new arrivals until long after much of the rest of the country (ragwort only reached us three years ago and I've yet to see a Harlequin ladybird here) so I don't really expect to see newcomers in these parts.

Must be all the east winds we had last year ...
Though here there are loads of wood chip piles producing all sorts of fungi, but not A rivulosa yet this year.

[Gerel]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

Must be all the east winds we had last year ...
Though here there are loads of wood chip piles producing all sorts of fungi, but not A rivulosa yet this year.

The same, well adjacent but contemporaneous, pile of wood chips has also got loads of large Peziza fruit bodies growing on it (species unknown) and the largest slime mould I've seen to date.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Gerel

The same, well adjacent but contemporaneous, pile of wood chips has also got loads of large Peziza fruit bodies growing on it (species unknown) and the largest slime mould I've seen to date.

if you could collect and dry the Peziza, I would be very interested in looking at it

cheers

Chris