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 ramshackle
Stranger
 
Registered: 04/25/07
Posts: 31
Last seen: 2 years, 4 months
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 Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) 
#6833676 - 04/25/07 05:02 PM (5 years, 1 month ago) |
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Hi guys, I've been lurking around here for a couple of weeks. It's been absolutely pissing down lately and I've been doing some amateur hunting around my house. I managed to find 3 species which were interesting (One large yellow one smelled like honey!) but almost definitely not active.
Then yesterday (ANZAC day) I went to visit my mum. She lives a little further out west, but still in the suburbs. As I got out of the car I spotted this suspicious mushroom growing on her grass.
It looks to me very close to the Gymnopolis purpuratus pictures I've seen on erowid and other sites. a few other specieis are similar but the habitat is all wrong. But since I am very new to this and know that just the superficial look is not enough to identify something, I'm interested in what some more experienced guys here might think.
The only reason I'm posting it is because it has many identifying features that I've read about here and elsewhere.
Habitat: A very soggy front lawn. Soil is superficially good but underneath all clay. Popular shitting grounds for local dogs.
Gills: White/creamy. Not attached to stem (not "Adnate"?) Sort of not all separate - the gills seem stacked in higgledy piggledy (see picture)
Stem: White, fragile, hollow, breaking and splitting easily lengthwise. Instantly bruised a greyish blueish upon handling (also visible in picture). About 7cm long.
Cap: Dark toffee brown with mottled darker (almost black) flecks on it. A dark spot right in the middle. About 6cm across, 2cm high. Nipple shaped. Shaggy/ragged around the edges (due to age?)
Spore print: Kind of a black/purple. Not a very good print due to limited time (I WAS at my mother's place after all!)
Bruising: Stem bruised a greyish/blueish straight away. The gills turned a dark almost black colour just sitting on the paper.
Location: Sydney, NSW, in a slightly north, slightly western suburb (about an hour from the city)
It smelled like a regular eating mushroom only a bit nicer, not so funky.
What's the verdict? Did I chuck a valuable mushroom in the bin?!
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ramshackle
Stranger
Registered: 04/25/07
Posts: 31
Last seen: 2 years, 4 months
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 Re: Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) [Re: ramshackle]
#6833685 - 04/25/07 05:04 PM (5 years, 1 month ago) |
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PS: Very sorry, but I wasn't allowed to attach a jpg, so I put it in a rar file. Hope this is OK.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 24,722
Last seen: 2 days, 4 hours
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Re: Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) [Re: ramshackle]
#6833955 - 04/25/07 06:11 PM (5 years, 1 month ago) |
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I put your photo on photobucket so rar is not required.
I think it is a Hygrocybe, which would have white spores.
Many members of this genus stain blackish when handled. I think the wetness of the mushroom caused some of the black compound to get on the paper, making black lines where the gills were. If the mushroom actually had a dark color spore print, the gills would have a darker color.
I looked around briefly and found that Hygrocybe conicoides stains black, grows in grass and looks a bit like your mushroom. I don't think that is exactly what it is, but I think your mushroom is closely related. To get the correct species name of a Hygrocybe often requires a microscope.
I ID'd some similar mushrooms last month which someone had bought on the street. They were all bruising charcoal black rather than blue and I strongly advised her not to eat them. It appears that blackening hygrocybes are sometimes sold as fake magic mushrooms because they bruise dark colors and are relatively non-toxic.
For more info and a more exact ID, read this and use this key.
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ramshackle
Stranger
Registered: 04/25/07
Posts: 31
Last seen: 2 years, 4 months
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Re: Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#6834013 - 04/25/07 06:29 PM (5 years, 1 month ago) |
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Thanks very much Alan.
After looking through the MushroomExpert site you linked, it seems it most closely resembles the Hygrocybe Conica - but an old one. In fact, the picture of the second oldest specimen looks exactly the same, and the description fits. I did think it looked old and ragged.
White spores and black bruising gills would also explain why I thought the spore-print was black.
My girlfriend works in a lab, but I don't think it's worth the effort to go in to use the microscopes, not that I'd know what I was doing if I did - case closed.
Somewhat dissapointed that I'll have to tell my mum she doesn't actually have magic mushrooms in her front lawn, now I'll have to look harder elsewhere 
All a fun experience though.
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 shroomydan
exshroomerite
Registered: 07/04/04
Posts: 4,126
Loc: In the woods
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Re: Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) [Re: ramshackle]
#6834143 - 04/25/07 07:02 PM (5 years, 1 month ago) |
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I agree, thet looks like Witch's Hat.
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faiNt
Stranger
Registered: 06/11/09
Posts: 63
Last seen: 10 months, 6 days
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Re: Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) [Re: shroomydan]
#10486482 - 06/11/09 03:37 AM (2 years, 11 months ago) |
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yeah it does look like witch hat mushroom
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durantz
Stranger
Registered: 05/09/09
Posts: 569
Last seen: 8 days, 17 hours
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Re: Magic mushrooms on my mother's front lawn? (Suburbian NSW, Australia) [Re: faiNt]
#10486722 - 06/11/09 05:35 AM (2 years, 11 months ago) |
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hrmm wonder if it's still there after 2 years? :P
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