What are these mushrooms?
September 29, 2019 3:28 PM   Subscribe

These came up in the middle of a field in my neighborhood park. They remind me of inky cap or shaggy mane, which was why I stopped, but not quite. Did my neighborhood get a fancy edible mushroom windfall (unlikely), or are they something else?
posted by centrifugal to Science & Nature (9 answers total)
 
Response by poster: PS, I’m clearly not eating them without an absolutely positive ID from someone credible, so no admonitions please!
posted by centrifugal at 3:38 PM on September 29, 2019


Best answer: Scaly Inky Cap? Wooly-stalked coprinus?

Hard to get a firm ID without a closer look at the stem and gills... did the veil leave a ring on the stalk or fibers on the cap? Are the gills drying or dissolving?

I'm looking in my Audubon Mushroom Field Guide, as I actually saw a very similar mushroom come up here in BC a few days ago. Mine are shaggy mane, but ymmv.
posted by ananci at 4:45 PM on September 29, 2019 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Just went back to see what they were doing today. They look like this and there will be a bunch of new ones tomorrow.
posted by centrifugal at 5:15 PM on September 29, 2019


Aminita are not umbrella but capped while in early stages.
posted by waving at 6:30 PM on September 29, 2019


Best answer: Hmm. With that gill color and pattern... that might be a shaggy mane after all. What did you see that looked off to you? Also scaly ink caps would be unusual to find in a field, like shaggy manes do...they generally grow on hardwood debris.

Shaggy mane stalks are hollow with a central strand of fibers, while scaly ink caps will have brownish runners (rhizomorphs) at the base.

Scaly ink caps taste terrible btw.
posted by ananci at 7:05 PM on September 29, 2019


Response by poster: Ananci, thanks! The shape didn’t seem quite right - they’re shorter and rounder than I’d have thought, and less shaggy than what I think a shaggy mane should look like. But they are on the right kind of ground (a disturbed field) and looked right as they broke down, so I could be thinking too narrowly.
posted by centrifugal at 10:52 PM on September 29, 2019


r/mycology can probably help.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 4:09 AM on September 30, 2019


That's a bad link. Use this: https://www.reddit.com/r/mycology/
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 4:10 AM on September 30, 2019


Look like delicious shaggy manes. IANAM
posted by terrapin at 6:33 AM on September 30, 2019


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