Help me identify these mushrooms from my backyard
October 10, 2016 10:24 PM   Subscribe

With the arrival of the rains, a patch of mushrooms of a wide variety of shapes and color patterns has sprouted around my chestnut tree in the backyard. I heard mushroom identification can be tricky so I have no plans on eating them. But I would love to know what species they are. I've tried a couple of online mushroom identification sites but haven't had much luck. Here are some pictures They are all about 2-3 inches tall. As far as I can tell they don't have any striking odors. I live in Portland Oregon.
posted by Pantalaimon to Home & Garden (6 answers total)
 
Maybe some kind of Russula? I'm not an expert, though.
If you're on FB you may post the photos in the Mushroom Identification Group and you're likely to get a quick answer.
posted by Red Loop at 3:18 AM on October 11, 2016


I've just recently started dipping my toe into the waters of mushroom identification, but one thing that I do know is that there are many more identification features for mushrooms than I thought.

If you're going to get a good ID, it would be helpful to at least have a picture of the underside of the gills (both the fresher -- i'm assuming the white ones -- and the more mature pink ringed ones).

In addition, if you could make a "spore print" that would help as well. Basically, pick one of the mushrooms, remove the stem, and put it on a piece of paper (preferably one with dark and white regions -- some people just scribble some sharpie on part of the paper), and cover it with a bowl or the like for a few to 24 hours. When you come back, the cap should have released some spores, which can be examined for color by the naked eye.

While you're at the spore print stage, anything more that you can say about the stem would be helpful too (hollow? stiff? large celled?). Also, is the cap "fleshy" or "tough" or "crumbly" or "spongy"? Is it dry or slimy? etc.
posted by sparklemotion at 8:04 AM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Considering the location and abundance, perhaps they're meadow mushrooms(if the small white ones have salmon pink or reddish gills, they're meadow mushrooms). But it could also be a type of russula that's very broken down. It's hard to say without a decent shot of the gills and because most of them are fairly old. But the very "chubby" shape of the young ones is very typical of meadow mushrooms. Another way to check for this is to cut the stem and see how it bruises, it should bruise a kindof dirt brown colour, not yellow or pink.
posted by InkDrinker at 11:33 AM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


This regional key looks pretty decent as a guide. As others have noted, you'll need to look at the gills and do a spore print for more information.
posted by veery at 12:04 PM on October 11, 2016


I don't think they're russulas. (One easy russula test is whether you can snap the stem like a piece of chalk.)

In addition to getting a spore print, there are some other necessary identifying factors that aren't visible in the pictures you took. What color are the gills? How do they connect to the stem? Is there a ring around the stem, below the cap, leftover matter from before the cap opened up?

Some other key characteristics described here.

If you like this sort of thing, you might want to get a copy of Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora, which is the Bible for West Coast mushrooms.(Not "All the Rain Promises," which is a much thinner pocket guide.) Mushrooms Demystified is a huge book loaded with tons of info and it will have all of the keys you need to narrow down the ID. Your library may have a copy, but it's also available on Amazon.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:47 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


University of British Columbia Fungus and Lichen Forum is the place to ask.
posted by allelopath at 6:44 PM on October 11, 2016


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