What is this mushroom

[Gloss123]

Hi I found this mushrooom growing on open grass the stipe is very fibrousy and tough, the cap has a sort of fluff on top of it, Im new to mushroom identification and there are few which it could possibly be but hopefully someone with more knowledge than myself can help, many thanks

[Chris Yeates]

It's one of the honey fungus complex - probably Armillaria gallica

cheers

Chris

PS - welcome to WAB!

[Gloss123]

Many thanks for your reply just looked through my book and Armillaria gallica
isnt in it so I had no chance of identifying it, maybe I need to get another book

[fairplay]

If your book is just a basic job then I expect it isn't, but if you have a bigger but oldish book, it may be under the name of Armillaria bulbosa - its old name.

All the same, it sounds like you do need to buy a better book.

Neil.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Gloss123

Many thanks for your reply just looked through my book and Armillaria gallica
isnt in it so I had no chance of identifying it, maybe I need to get another book

trouble is that there is no single book (or indeed series of books) which can be guaranteed to have everything you might find in it) we ain't talking birds and butterflies (or even moths) now . . . .

but have fun anyway!

Chris

[Gloss123]

Its a Collins Encylopedia which I thought would be a good book to start with but I find it quite difficult to identify mushrooms with

[Iona F]

Originally Posted by Gloss123

Its a Collins Encylopedia which I thought would be a good book to start with but I find it quite difficult to identify mushrooms with

I've got the 2009 Sterry & Hughes Collins... I'd really recommend it. I find it handy to be able to cross reference, so I keep hold of my old Phillips, but it's definitely my favourite, and relatively up to date with the constantly changing names! I've noticed since being a member here though that some have changed since it was published... I understand there'll be another out next year.

[fairplay]

Due in March I'm told, assuming we are talking about Steffan Buczacki and not Marcel Bon !

Neil.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by Iona F

I've got the 2009 Sterry & Hughes Collins... I'd really recommend it. I find it handy to be able to cross reference, so I keep hold of my old Phillips, but it's definitely my favourite, and relatively up to date with the constantly changing names! I've noticed since being a member here though that some have changed since it was published... I understand there'll be another out next year.

name changes need not be a major issue; there's always going to be some changes as we learn more through sequencing, and some changes are down to matters of opinion between the leading workers in the different groups - there is no correct, final, name for anything (remember, towards the beginning, all toadstools were placed in Agaricus); whether one treats Pholiotina as separate from Conocybe (at the generic level - it at least needs separating as a sub-genus) is largely a matter of opinion, but when Haussknecht published his major review of these fungi one would be foolish not to follow his conclusions without very good reason

use whatever name is in your books - if people on WAB say it's "such-and-such" now it isn't a criticism of the person using a different name

to get a pretty good idea of current nomenclature check out Index Fungorum - Search Page - though not everyone goes along with all those names (as we found out on the BMS Spring Foray, when the continental workers occasionally tended to use different generic names, especially for inoperculate ascomycetes).

a useful rule of thumb is to use whatever names and descriptive terms you're happy with in conversations and on WAB, etc. The experts can be heard talking of "disco's", "pyrenomycetes", "hyphomycetes" etc. even though those terms have been proved to have no actual taxonomic value - they still confer informal meaning(*). However, if and when you come to publish then you need to be sure you are using the most recent, widely-accepted, name.

(*) let us never forget, for example - there is no such thing as "fish"

Chris

[Iona F]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

if and when you come to publish then you need to be sure you are using the most recent, widely-accepted, name.


Chris

Good to know I've got a while to get to grips with it!

Just surprises me sometimes how quickly things change, it can make you desperate to understand what's been discovered to differentiate between things that were previously sharing a genus, and feeling a little left behind... someone posted about Collybia butyracea using a different name the other day, talk about pulling the rug from under your feet! Seems even the most everyday fungi get the name changing treatment.

Good to know that at least on here I'm alright sticking with the names I know