Unidentified shaggy something

[82t]

Hi

I found a troop of these mushrooms in a local park, beneath a beech tree. Very yellow to look at, even before picking. Stained yellow on cutting, as shown. Smell is earthy and pleasant, not unlike domestic mushrooms.

I thought it might be a shaggy parasol but the staining is the wrong colour and the yellowness is too much as well, I suspect. Best match I can see in the Phillips book is Shaggy Scalycap (Pholiota squarrosa). My specimen is not quite as shaggy as his photos show, but the staining matches and my spore print is rusty brown.

Opinions please!

[Ditiola]

Hi

I think you have hit it spot on with: Pholiota squarrosa


Peter

[Lancashire Lad]

I'd probably record these as Pholiota squarrosa, but there's a caveat.

(Isn't there always a "but" of some description with fungi? )

There is a possibility that they could be Pholiota squarrosoides - almost identical macroscopically, so, to be certain, microscopy is the order of the day. See also (re DNA analysis):- Pholiota squarrosoides (MushroomExpert.Com)

Since P.squarrosoides currently has only one British record on the FRDBI (2006) it becomes a question of - was that record correct? - or, is it more likely that many of the P.squarrosa records were incorrectly made, and that the finds were actually P.squarrosoides?

Regards,
Mike.