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Home , Amanita, Amanita bisporigera, Amanita fulva, Amanita jacksonii, Amanita phalloides, Amanita virosa

Mushroom ID 101 What is a ?

• are the fruiting bodies of certain fungi - the apple, not the tree. • Classified in the Charlotte Caplan Fungi kingdom Asheville Mushroom Club (Mycota) March 2018

What We’ll Do Today Why are Mushrooms like Icebergs?

• How mushrooms grow • Because you only see a small part of what’s there • Basic classification of macrofungi • Most of the is an underground • Made up of tiny strands of tissue – hyphae • Features used to identify mushrooms • Looking like this: • Some common families of mushrooms • Common poisonous mushrooms • Where to find more information

Why are Fungi Important? Fungi at work!

• They are nature’s recyclers – creating soil for Only fungi can digest the tough plant growth lignins in wood and return the carbon and other elements to • Vital to all ecosystems: no fungi – no soil, no the soil. plants, no animals • Most trees and plants rely on fungal mycelium around their roots or in their tissues • Some mushrooms are edible or medicinal • Some fungi can clean up pollution • They are beautiful and endlessly varied

Mature mushroom (fruiting body) (~1/100th mm) Mushroom Categories

Gills Fungi are classified first by way they grow and disperse their Fungal Life spores. Two main groups (phyla): Ring Cycle • Basidiomycetes produce spores at the tip of specialized germination cells (basidia), usually on the underside of the fruiting body, which drop by gravity Part of mycelium • Ascomycetes produce spores inside tube-like cells (asci) on the outer surface and are forcibly ejected up & out

There are other phyla, but they are mostly microscopic. Mycelium

Mushroom primordia

Basidiomycete Spore Production Ascomycete Spore Production

• How are the spores spread?

Spore Dispersal Methods Mushroom names

l Wind • Scientific (Latin): + e.g. strobilaceus l Impact (by raindrops or animals)

l Being eaten by • Common name: · Mammals “Old Man of the Woods” · Insects · Other invertebrates l Jet propulsion – yes! l Some combination of the above

Types of mushrooms – not just Identification - Where to Begin? cap & stalk

• Over 10,000 mushroom species in the US • About 250 are edible • Many are hard to identify, requiring years of experience, expensive reference books and a microscope

Some mushrooms haven't even been named yet!

“Shelf” Mushrooms Other Shapes:

A B

A. Hemlock Varnish Shelf B. Chicken of the Woods C. Hexagonal-pored Polypore molle - Soft Calvaita gigantea - Giant Puffball D. Turkey Tail

C DD

and more .. Identifying “Cap & Stem” Mushrooms

Step one: Look under the cap: what does the spore-bearing surface look like?

Morchella esculentoides – A) Gills Yellow Morel B) Pores C) Teeth D) Folds E) Smooth

Leotia viscosa - Green Jelly Mutinus caninus – Dog Babies Stinkhorn

Clav aria zollingeri – Purple Coral

Gill Features

Widely spaced

Moderately spaced (this one also produces milky latex when cut) Closely spaced

Crowded (this one also bruises green)

Look under the Cap – 2. Pores How Gills are Attached to the Stem Spores form on the inner surface of tightly packed vertical tubes under the cap (e.g. , , Polyporus)

0 Boletus frostii Polyporus squamosus Frost’s Bolete Dryad’s Saddle

Look under the Cap – 3. Teeth Look under the Cap – 4. Folds

Spores form on the outside of spines that hang The have a down under the cap (Hydnum, Sarcodon) folded or wrinkled spore- bearing surface – not true gills – or smooth

Cantharellus infundibuliformis (Funnel-shaped Chanterelle)

Hydnum repandum lateritius (The Hedgehog) (Smooth Chanterelle) Martin Livezey

Step 2: Look for Rings and Veils Then look at other features

• Is there a ring of tissue on the upper stalk l Rings & veils l Spore color (evidence of a “”) l Texture & “feel” • Are there ridges or or a cup-like sac (a ) l Smell & taste around the base of the stalk (evidence of a l Habitat “”)? l Size • Are there patches or warts on the cap that can be l Cap color l Season rubbed off (more evidence of a universal veil)?

Rings & Veils Some Genera with Rings on Stem

Amanita

Lepiota Suillus

Another of veil Veils can Vanish

The genus : all species have a cobweb-like partial veil, soon lost.

Deadly – © Fred Stevens

Common – Psathyrella Candolleana

Step 3 – Spore Color

• Very important for identification • Often hard to tell in the field • Gill color may provide a clue • Learn to make a

Step 4 - Texture

Use black paper for white spores “Corky” “Leathery” “Fibrous” Boletes give spore prints too “Firm” “Brittle” Ascomycetes are messy “Delicate”

Morels Carbon Balls

Some Important Mushroom Other Features Families • Habitat – where it’s growing • • Substrate – what it’s growing on • • Smell & taste • • Cap & stem surfaces • Boletes • Color • Polypores • Season

Amanita Family Volva – evidence of a “universal veil” • Tissue around entire button • Ruptured by the growing mushroom • Leaves a sac or just a collar-like ring on base of stem • May leave patches on cap • All have a volva – very few other mushrooms do.

Amanita jacksonii “Eastern Caesar’s Mushroom”

Amanita bisporigera “”

More Common Amanitas Is this an Amanita?

The - Amanita ameri-rubescens

Coker’s Amanita – A. cokeri Tawny Grisette – Yellow Patches – A. Flavoconia

Lactarius: “Milk Caps”

• Features like • Plus - exude milky latex when cut • Latex often “hot” tasting

Lactarius peckii (Peck’s Milk Cap)

Glenn Esterson

Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus Boletes: Mushrooms with pores (Violet Bolete) • Boletes are fleshy mushrooms Common Boletes with tubes & pores under the cap • Tubes easily separated from cap • Grow on the ground (not wood) • One family – many genera

Boletus bicolor Suillus pictus Two-colored Bolete felleus Pain ted Bolete (Bitter Bolete)

Other Bolete Features Some change color when bruised Stem patterns: - Network (reticulation - Scales (scabers) - Dots

Gyroporus cyanescens

Polypores

Have at least two out of three features:

• Pores under cap Trametes versicolor – Turkey Tail • Grow on wood Polyporus varius – Elegant Polypore • Tough, corky or leathery texture

One family, many genera

Bondarzewia berkeleyi – Ganoderma tsugae – Hemlock varnish shelf Berkeley’s Polypore

Some of the Commonest Deadly Poisonous Mushrooms: Poisonous Mushrooms Amanitas • Destroying Angel & other Amanitas • Jack o’Lantern • Yellow Stainer • Green-spored Lepiota • Earth Ball : • Cortinarius species Destroying Angel • Deadly Galerina

• False morel Death Cap

More Amanitas: Do Not Eat!! Beware of Jack O’ Lantern! Coker’s Amanita Chanterelle (cantharellus sp.) l Folds, not gills l Single or small clusters l On ground

Edible Amanita rubescens The Blusher Jack O’ Lantern (Omphalous illudens) l True gills l On wood or buried roots Poisonous Fly l Grows in big clusters (two color variants)

Agaricus Xanthoderma The Yellow Stainer

A. campestris A. xanthodermis Field Mushroom The Yellow Stainer Edible Poisonous

Cortinarius citrinum Common Earth Ball Cortinarius speciossimus Deadly

Rusty spores

Web-like veil

Cortinarius iodes Gemmed Puffball – Spotted Cort - not poisonous, not Poisonous Edible recommended

Field Guides Want to know more?

• Buy some field guides • Lots to choose from • Join a club • Buy more than one • Use the web - carefully • Check the area covered

Just out: A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas Bessette, Bessette & Hopping