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ToxicMan
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Registered: 06/28/02
Posts: 6,721
Loc: Aurora, Colorado
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Re: brisbane, australia.. mushrooms [Re: brizvegasguy]
#1335817 - 02/25/03 05:17 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'll try guesses on a couple of the more distinctive looking ones for you.
From the first gallery, I only see one that is distinctive enough to ID without a more detailed description - #6. It looks like Marasmius siccus.
From the second gallery, #8 & 9 resemble Leucocoprinus birnbaumii.
I could try to guess on others, but they would be pretty wild guesses. You will probably do best if you pick out specific ones you want IDed and make detailed descriptions of them for us to work from.
Hope that was a little help, anyway.
Happy mushrooming!
-------------------- Happy mushrooming!
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ToxicMan
Bite me, it's fun!


Registered: 06/28/02
Posts: 6,721
Loc: Aurora, Colorado
Last seen: 1 day, 1 hour
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Re: brisbane, australia.. mushrooms [Re: brizvegasguy]
#1340708 - 02/27/03 11:55 AM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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The first mushroom(s) in the new (3rd) gallery are pretty easy. Those are Chlorophyllum molybdites. They grow in lawns all over the world. They are extremely nasty poisnonous. DO NOT EAT. They cause severe acute gastrointestinal distress - that means severe abdominal cramping (pain similar to surgery), nausea, vomiting, and "explosive" (sometimes bloody) diarrhea. I'm not personally exactly sure what explosive diarrhea is, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out first hand. The grayish-green color of the gills plus the overall stature of the mushroom like a large Lepiota are characteristic of this species. If you collect large Lepiotas to eat, make sure you get a spore print to eliminate these from your collections.
The second, all white one looks like one of the all white Amanita species, but I can't see enough detail on it to be sure. The Amanitas that resemble that mushroom are among the deadliest mushrooms in the world - again do NOT eat. The deadly Amanitas destroy the liver of their victims, causing death after a couple weeks. If you are severely poisoned by these the treatment consists of a liver transplant. A typical white Amanita species is Amanita verna, also known as a "Death Angel" or "Destroying Angel".
The last, orange one suggests Amanita also. Again, I can't see the details I need to verify that.
To verify the potential Amanitas yourself, look carefully at the base of the stem. Amanitas (mostly) will have a volva which will either look like a cuplike sheath extending up from the base or they may have rings of tissue near the base which are the remains of a similar structure which is brittle. Note that it is very easy to leave the volval tissue behind in the ground when you pick an Amanita. You need to make sure you get the entire base of the mushroom, especially when it might be an Amanita. The base of the stem is vital for accurate identification of most Amanitas.
Hope that was helpful.
Happy mushrooming!
-------------------- Happy mushrooming!
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ToxicMan
Bite me, it's fun!


Registered: 06/28/02
Posts: 6,721
Loc: Aurora, Colorado
Last seen: 1 day, 1 hour
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Re: brisbane, australia.. mushrooms [Re: ]
#1343664 - 02/28/03 06:11 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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I agree with you, and wrote an editorial for the Colorado Mycological Society on that topic, concluding with what I considered a dire prediction - I hope that the day doesn't arrive when the only way we can say for sure what kind of mushroom it is will be to take a DNA sample and compare it to a database. Papers like this one are just the sort of thing that makes me think that maybe that day is closer than I thought.
The universities aren't producing PhD mycologists anymore - at least not nearly enough to replace those who are retiring. When Dr. Orson Miller, Jr retired, he was replaced with a molecular biologist. If this trend continues, in 20 or 30 years if they need a fresh specimen of some species of mushroom they'll have to come to people like us to get one, because there won't be enough professional mycologists around to do that sort of work.
I think that at least some of the work the molecular biologists are doing is great - how else are we going to figure out that those 3 species are actually only one species, or that this species should be split into 8? Some of the genera weren't put together very well, and they help fix that mess, too.
I just can't not worry that, in the end, they'll twist things around to the point where you can't "accurately" identify a mushroom just by looking at it - not even with a microscope and chemical reagents.
I sure hope I'm wrong about that.
Happy mushrooming!
-------------------- Happy mushrooming!
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