Hello all, I am a moderately experienced mushroom hunter of edible types... I have never positively ID'd any sort of 'active' mushroom. I need help with this particular species. Any advice or suggestions are helpful (long post follows).
I have tried to key this find out using MD and Audobon. I haven't been able to do so. My best guess is that it is P. Sylvatica... here are the details.
Habitat: Decaying conifer wood, under shrub, under medium-dense canopy in seattle park. It has been warm for october, and not as rainy as it usually is, so these look a bit dried out. Gills: Medium brown, look whitish from the bottom (white tips?) Spore print purple (see left side of dime). Adnate or Sinuate, specimen a little dried out. Stem: White. It doesn't look so in the outdoor picture. Slightly thicker at base, mycelium white. hollow in very center portion. Most confusing aspect: does not bruise blue.
Info I've found on the web on silvatica (note mention of bruising is 'slight' which IMHO could be missed in an older specimen): mushroomjohn: Cap: .8-2.5 cm broad. Obtusely conic to campanulate with an acute umbo. Tawny dark brown when moist, fading to a pale yellow-brown. Smooth, viscid when moist with a thin gelatinous pellicle. Gills: Adnate to adnexed. Close to subdistant and narrow to moderately broad. Dull grayish brown to cinnamon or smoky brown with age. Edges white. Stem: 20-80 mm long x 1-3 mm thick. Equal to slightly enlarge at the base. Brittle. Spores: 6-9.5 x 4-5.5m. Sporeprint: Dark purplish brown. Habitat: Gregarious but not cespitose on wood debris, wood chips (preferably alder), or even decayed conifer substratum. Distribution: From west of the Cascades in southern Oregon to British Columbia, Canada. Also reported from Idaho and as far away as Finland. Season: From late September through December. Comments: Very similar to Psilocybe pelliculosa and is usually found growing along with them. Stamets (1996) reports that in some colonies of Psilocybe silvatica the caps were more yellow in appearance than those of the caps of Psilocybe pelliculosa.
Forestry CA: LATIN NAME(S) Psilocybe silvatica (Peck) Singer & Smith Mycologia 50: 277. 1958 ENGLISH NAME(S) NOTES features include hygrophanous tawny dark brown viscid non-peeling cap, dull grayish brown to cinnamon brown to smoky brown gills with white edges, pallid to brownish stem with whitish fibrillose covering, farinaceous odor and taste, growth on wood, dark purplish brown spore deposit, and microscopic characters, PNW status of this species is questioned by some; Guzman examined collections from WA, OR, ID, NY, Finland, Sweden, (Guzman), reported also from MI, ON, (Stamets) CAP 0.8-2.5cm, obtusely conic to bellshaped, often with an acute umbo; tawny dark brown when moist, fading to pale yellowish brown or grayish brown; smooth, viscid when moist from a thin gelatinous pellicle that is barely separable, if at all, (Stamets), (0.5)0.8-2.0(2.5)cm, sharply to bluntly conic, usually becoming broadly bellshaped to broadly conic, often with a papilla; hygrophanous, dull dark sordid to pale yellowish brown when fresh and moist, sometimes with a distinct grayish green tinge along margin, fading to pale buff; viscid with tenacious separable pellicle (cap skin), the margin for a time appendiculate with hanging veil remnants, bald at maturity, even but finely striate when moist, (Guzman) FLESH whitish and pliant in cap, brownish and cartilaginous in stem, slightly blue when cut, (Guzman) GILLS adnate to adnexed, close to somewhat distant, narrow to moderately broad; dull grayish brown to cinnamon brown to smoky brown at maturity, with edges remaining whitish, (Stamets), adnate; dull cinnamon brown at first, finally dark smoky brown from spores, edge whitish, (Guzman) STEM 2.0-8.0cm x 0.1-0.3cm, equal to slightly enlarged at base, brittle, tubular, and somewhat flexuous (bent both ways), pallid to brownish beneath a whitish fibrillose covering, (Stamets), (3)6.9-8.0cm x 0.1-0.2(0.3)cm, "equal or the base slightly enlarged, hollow, rather pliant but rigid, flexuous, swollen at the base"; brownish to bister or very dark toward the base, apex pallid to grayish, slightly bluish green at base; appressed silky-fibrillose downward, pruinose toward top, (Guzman) VEIL partial veil poorly developed, cortinate, thin to obscure, and soon absent, (Stamets), white arachnoid cortina when young, soon disappearing, no ring when mature, (Guzman) ODOR farinaceous when crushed fresh and young, (Guzman) TASTE farinaceous when young (Guzman) EDIBILITY contains psilocybin and/or psilocin but estimated not to be potent, (Stamets) HABITAT gregarious but not tufted on wood debris or wood chips or in well-decayed conifer substrate in fall, (Stamets), scattered to gregarious, not cespitose (tufted), on debris of conifers or amongst fallen leaves of hardwood trees, rarely on twigs or very rotten wood, in conifer or hardwood (mainly Fagus grandifolia) forests, (Guzman) SPORE DEPOSIT dark purplish brown (Stamets) MICROSCOPIC spores 6-9.5 x 4.5-5.5 microns, (Stamets); basidia 4- or sometimes 2-spored, pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia present 24-40 x 4.4-7(8.8) microns, fusoid-ventricose (spindle-shaped and wider in middle) to lageniform (flask-shaped), with long flexuous neck, 1.6-2.2 microns thick, (Stamets), spores (6.6)8.5-9.5(11) x (3.8)4.4-5.5(6) microns, subelliptic or elliptic in face and side view, moderately thick-walled (0.5-1 micron), yellowish brown, with broad germ pore; basidia 4-spored, 16-30 x 5.5-8 microns, colorless, ventricose, sometimes with a slight median constriction; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia abundant, forming a sterile band, 24-34(40) x 4.4-6.6(8.8) microns, fusoid-ventricose to lageniform with long flexuous neck 1.6-2.2 microns wide, often pedicellate; clamp connections very common, (Guzman), spores presumably smooth NAME ORIGIN means 'of the forest' SIMILAR pelliculosa but differs in length of spores and cheilocystidia, and tends to be more yellow SOURCES Stamets*, Guzman FAMILY Strophariaceae of Order Agaricales
|