Fungi after the snow!! (1 Viewer)

black52bird said:

Just out in the park this morning after 2 days of rain had relieved us of most of the snow, and the first sun for about 10 days appeared, and was amazed to find a huge colony of the enclosed fungus stretched along a shrubbery and in the adjacent grass, growing in clumps on twigs and other wood debris.

Initially I wondered if it might be Galerina (Pholiota) mutabilis, but it dried from the outside the the centre, and doesn't really seem to have enough scales on the flattish stipe. I am rather leaning towards Tubaria furfuracea at present.

The caps are 3.5 cm across and the stipe is about 4 cm long in a fully grown specimen.

Anyone got any suggestions.

Best

David

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Silver said:

Hi David,

As I post so often, examination of the spores can be vital. It would be so helpful to know if your fungus has thick-walled, ornamented. strongly coloured spores of the 'Galerina' type, or the very thin-walled, smooth spores, effectively colourless under the microscope, of the 'Tubaria' type.

Going on what we can see here, I agree it is not Kuehneromyces (or Galerina) mutabilis. As you say, the way the cap dries is quite wrong, despite the superficial resemblance to that species.

After some initial doubts, I think you are right that it is a Tubaria, though perhaps T. romagnesiana rather than T. furfuracea (though the two are certainly distinguishable only by measuring the spores). It is common as a winter fungus (at least here in the UK), sometimes appearing in the quantity shown in your photograph.

If microscopic examination is not possible, I suggest that you at least obtain a spore print. The spore-print of a Tubaria is buff, whereas spore-prints of Galerina, Kuehneromyces, Pholiota, Naucoria and related genera are rust to darker brown.

Alan

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