This post will include both my own experience and findings, as well as some questions about the species. I guess the purpose is to get some talk happening about the species, as I've seen little of it among Victorians.
I read somewhere that this is an introduced species to Victoria, but at any rate, I am fairly certain that I found these during the rainy part of winter in south-east Melb. They may have been my first ever find despite subs being the common strain. Unfortunately I don't have the photos that were taken, as I was without camera or phone at the time, and so my mate took the photos, and has unfortunately deleted them since. I have included some pictures from the shroomery archive that most closely resemble what I remember. Without being too specific on the location, me and two friends hunted in a small nature reserve next to the Belgrave/Lilydale trainline. The location had many pine trees, gum trees and long, grassy shrubs, and was extremely wet after a heavy rain. We found many types of mushroom while wondering around, there were pleanty of A. Muscarias about, but we found no behemoth patches of subaeruginosa, which we were hoping for. I was however vaguely aware of and familiar with other strains found in Vic that I had read about on the shroomery. We did happen upon a small cluster of beautiful looking mushrooms nestled in under the leaves of a shrub and some logs. The largest one in the cluster had been squished by the growth of the others, and was distinctively chalky dark blue as a result. All of the mushrooms had a pale golden top, with a distinct, dark gold-ish ring with blue staining (particularly on the largest one). The stem was silky white, earthy in places, and bruised blue and the gills were a dark brown color. Darker colors came out as we got them home and each mushroom went more blue, but retained the distinct darker ring around the outsider and gold burst in the center. The spore print was a dark inky black with slight blue and brown tinge. The smell was sweet and biscuity, quite similar to how some subaeruginosas I found and ate in my back yard later in the season smelled (had these IDd by a TI months back on mates account). They looked distinctively different however, and may have been larger on average.
We weren't brave enough to eat these, as we were (and still are) all inexperienced hunters, and had not yet connected to the shroomerie at this stage.
With the Vic season over for the most common strain, are these a potential option to turn to for those who missed it? I shared the subs I found with friends and so didn't have enough to get the full deal, and would like to go out and find some more. Does anyone else have any experiences of these in Melbourne? Any tips on the kinds of habitats and indicators to look for in order to find these? What's the growing season for these in Victoria? I have found very little discussion about these p. cintulus mushrooms in the context of Victoria, but I have seen it listed as a shroom that grows down here on this and other sites.
I have read from threads in other countries where this strain grows, that they like to grow from dung, hay, and grassy compost piles. I have also read that they can tend to grow under shrubs with leaves which have a tube or concave shape to them, as water runs down these leaves and channels down in streams to feed the ground below them.


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