Old Man fungi from Skye! ID help, please.

[solus]

All of these were found near the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye (Scotland) on 23rd September. It was blowing a hoolie and very cold and a bit damp at times too. I wasn't able to smell any of 'em as my nose was frozzed and runny and it was all I could do to take the photos without the upturned specimens blowing away!

I've got these as Panaeolus sp. but wonder if there's any chance of putting a more detailed name to them? In short grass grazed by occasional sheep.



I haven't the faintest idea about these except I did wonder about Entoloma, but I'm probably way off the mark again?




This was in a grassy clearing amongst the (mostly) coniferous forestry trees lower down the slope and at first I thought it was in good condition, until I picked it and realised it was somewhat scruffy about the stipe. It was also fairly large, probably about 3 inches across. I feel I should know this but I've spent so long looking at books and pictures on the interweb that I've gone all cross-eyed and my brain feels like the slugs have been at that too! It was very wet but that was the rain so I really don't know whether any of these would normally have dry caps.



All (most!) suggestions welcome.

[Chris Yeates]

hi

oh dear! your hopes may be largely dashed

yes it's a Panaeolus and your "more detailed name" is possible if you collected them and have access to a microscope (or a friendly mycologist with a microscope) - otherwise . . . .

second is almost certainly an Entoloma; but, as I'm sure you appreciate as a WAB regular, it's a much bigger genus than Panaeolus and fraught with difficulty; that one is somewhat reminiscent of E. porphyrophaeum but that cap looks too 'scaly' to my eyes - others may be better able to comment

the last one is reminiscent of Entoloma as well, but when a fungus fruit-body matures to this turned-up-edge / Marilyn Monroe-over-the-air-vent stage it can be very difficult - you need a range of specimens, including young developing ones

early on in my mycological struggles I had it drummed into me that "one fungus is not a fungus" - meaning that ones chances of identifying a totally unfamiliar collection based on a single fruit-body is unlikely (for a start, once you've done the microscopy, there's little else to serve as a voucher specimen if it turns out to be something interesting); these days I rarely bother to bring home a fungus if that is the case - there's so much else to take up ones (limited) mycological time - and yet how many of the ID requests on WAB bear this in mind?:

hey ho

C

[solus]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

hi

oh dear! your hopes may be largely dashed

C

Oh well, I'm used to that! *sob*

Panaeolus: no, didn't collect, no access to microscope etc. so "Panaeolus sp." it is and I'm happy to have got that far to be honest.

I've looked up Entoloma porphyrophaeum and it looks a pretty close match - bearing in mind I do understand that no definitive ID can be made without microscopy etc. Also, the Basidiomycota Checklist for that species states:
"Habitat: On acidic soil, amongst short turf, in unimproved grassland.
Notes: Occasional but widespread, and may be locally common in upland pastures, especially in northern and western Britain. Infrequent in southern counties." That all fits too - and I rather suspect the "scaly" appearance of the cap in the photos is just how extremely wet fibres look - this wasn't just a shower of rain, it was several days' worth of almost full-time wetting from mist/low cloud, heavy rain....

The last "Marilyn Monroe" one (I like that description!) was on its own. And by then I was wet, cold and thinking mainly about the baked potato I was going to have when we reached the cafe in Staffin....

Chris - your last paragraph is a tad grumpy, is it not? If we all followed your advice we'd ignore all Russulas, chuck away the little brown jobs and stomp on just about everything else unless it's too small for stamping on, in which case you might like it!

One day I am going to post something I have failed to ID from the books and the internet and someone here is going to say "Ooh, that's ..... , really easy, fancy not knowing what that is!" *Sigh*.

Thanks for your time Chris.

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by solus

Chris - your last paragraph is a tad grumpy, is it not? If we all followed your advice we'd ignore all Russulas, chuck away the little brown jobs and stomp on just about everything else unless it's too small for stamping on, in which case you might like it!

You'll get used to that