Neolentinus lepideus?

[FungiJus]

Hi folks - Hope you can help with this one that was handed to me when I got home from work today - always nice to come home to a mushroom!





I reckon it's Neolentinus lepideus but would appreciate a second opinion (it was already dessicated so there's no chance of a spore print I'm afraid) also, apologies for the rubbish pics...

Problem with this one is that is was pushing out from between the tiles in a friend's bathroom, which suggests that it is growing on the wood behind.

Given this thing's reputation, what's the best course of action?

Cheers,
J.

[stickman]

Hmmmm not sure about this, the stipe looks about right but the gills don't look serrated (but they are 'wavy' through dessication).

Neolentinus lepideus smells quite strongly of mixed spice/cinnamon, which becomes more apparent on drying so get in there and give it a sniff!

Hope that helps. Nick.

[FungiJus]

Hi Nick - thanks for that.

I agree, the serrations are hard to spot, but I just took this photo which shows that they are there, albeit fairly small.

As for the smell, well I dont know how long it was there before I got my hands on it, but it does smell reasonably strongly of something - identification not helped by the fairly liberal dusting of talcum powder it has acquired along the way. Well it was in a bathroom

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by FungiJus

Problem with this one is that is was pushing out from between the tiles in a friend's bathroom, which suggests that it is growing on the wood behind.

Given this thing's reputation, what's the best course of action?

Cheers,
J.

Well, sporadically or regularly damp/wet timber in the house, especially in a warm place like a bathroom is not good. Perfect conditions for worse things like dry rot. Fungi need food and water. You probably can't get rid of the food (wood) so the damp conditions need to be eliminated. The wood needs to fully dry out - there may need to be some opening up to allow this, and I would want to check that dry rot is not also getting established. Depending on the damage to the wood replace or retain, and use a boron preservative as a preventative measure. But your friend does need to find out where/why/how the water is reaching it and make repairs to prevent a repeat.

Melanie

[FungiJus]

Mel - thanks for the advice - I will pass this on and hopefully she can identify where the leak is and treat the timber too.

Strange really - I reckon this is the only time I have actively tried to kill a mushroom!

Cheers,
J.