[Mycology] I have never seen anything like this...

[La Monte Henry Piggy Yarroll]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:33:53 -0700 (PDT), Pamela <scullyps from yahoo.com> wrote:
> I was mowing and came across some mushrooms in the lawn, Deep red to
> maroon velvet like capped and yellowish stemmed mushrooms (the under
> side is as firm as the exposed side with no fluting or pleating)
> under my Oak tree.  I thought I'd look on-line.  I had no idea there
> were so many individuals into mushrooms.  Anyway, I came across a
> posting where the description matched my backyard mushroom; however,
> it stated these mushrooms were quite large.  Mine, are not.  Any
> ideas?

What is your tentative identification? Size is only very rarely a
useful diagnostic trait. A photograph would probably help a lot.

Your description is pretty good for someone with no mycological
background! It's enough for me to guess (20% confidence) Boletus
bicolor or one of its many look-alikes. B. bicolor is edible and
choice, but it has several poisonous look-alikes. I classify it as an
intermediate skill-level edible: safe to identify with a year or two
of mycological experience and likely errors causing only vomiting
and/or diarrhea but probably not requiring an emergency room trip.

It doesn't sound like you are considering eating these mushrooms, but
let me emphasize that the description above omits key details
necessary to completely eliminate the possiblity that your specimens
are deadly.

The fact that your mushrooms are growing under oak is probably
important for identification. Many mushrooms are mycorhizal, that is,
they have a symbiotic relationship with tree roots.

It sounds like you have some sort of bolete. You say "no fluting or
pleating" which I interpret as "no gills". Does it have pores on the
underside of the cap? That would make it a bolete.

There are a fairly large number of boletes with red cap and yellow
stem and pores.

If it IS a bolete, drag your fingernail across the pore surface. Does
it turn blue? brown? Break off a piece of cap and again look for a
staining reaction on exposure to air. Bruise the base of the stem and
look for one of these color changes. How quickly does the color change
happen? A fraction of a second? Several seconds? Minutes?

Is the stem reticulated (covered with a netlink layer)? Does it have
glandular dots (small dark-colored polka dots)?

The Boletes of North America: A Compendium  by Ernst E. Both is THE
reference book for boletes in North America and the one I use in lab.

North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms by
Alan E. Bessette, William C. Roody, and Arleen R. Bessette is a
beautifully illustrated volume nearly as complete as Both's work and
probably more accessible to the beginner.

Good general introductory works are David Arora's Mushrooms
Demystified, and Gary Lincoff's Audomon Guide.

Tom Volk's Fungi, http://tomvolkfungi.net, and Michael Kuo's Mushroom Expert,
http://www.mushroomexpert.com are my favorite online sites.

>   Pamela