The sun was out and it was a beautify warm autumn day, perfect for a walk in the woods. About 16 people took part looking for mushrooms in the mixed woods at the top of Murrysville Community Park. Despite the rain this last week larger terrestrial mushrooms were in short supply. The rain did bring out some jelly mushrooms and slime molds plus there were a number of small cup mushrooms found. Mushrooms of note were some older Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (False Chanterelle). They had a soft felt like texture on the cap. There was also a pretty Lactarius vinaceorufescens (Yellow Latex Milky) whose latex turned yellow over 30 seconds or so from being cut.
The eyelash cup mushrooms are difficult to identify without using a microscope so I took the single specimen that was collected home and had a look at the spores. Our field identification was Scutellinia scutellata, the species that is in all the guide books. I put a cover slip over the mushroom and wrapped in in a damp paper towel and plastic wrap. This causes the mushroom to sporalate and hopefully most of the spores were caught on the cover slip. After a couple of hours I placed the cover slip, spore side down, on to a microscope slide and added some lactophenol blue stain. The lactophenol blue stain helps visualize the spore ornamentation. The hard work was rewarded and the species was identified as Scutellinia subhirtella based on the spore size and ornamentation, hair lengths and shape plus other characteristics. We don’t currently know how common Scutellinia subhirtella is compared to the more well know S. scutellata and S. setosa but it seems to fruit in the fall like S. setosa while S. scutellata can be found from spring to fall. There are more Scutellinia species in the area too, Scutellinia crinita was recently identified after a walk at Mingo Creek. It looks similar to S. scutellata with very long eyelash hairs but the spore ornamentation is different. Looking closely at Scutellinia specimens over the coming years will help us lean more about the different species and their fruiting times.
Species list entered by Richard Jacob.
List of species found on the walk at Murrysville Community Park:
(Honey Mushroom), Armillaria gallica
(Honey Mushroom), Armillaria mellea
(), Ascocoryne sarcoides
(Tree-ear / Wood Ear), Auricularia angiospermarum
(Yellow Fairy Cups), Bisporella citrina
(Honeycomb Coral Slime Mold ), Ceratiomyxa porioides
(), Coprinus lagopides
(Thin-maze Flat Polypore), Daedaleopsis confragosa
(Aborted Entoloma), Entoloma abortivum
(Brown jelly roll), Exidia crenata
(Scrambled-egg Slime; Dog Vomit Slime), Fuligo septica
(Deadly galerina), Galerina marginata
(False Chanterelle), Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca
(Yellow Latex Milky), Lactarius vinaceorufescens
(Chicken Mushroom; Sulphur Shelf), Laetiporus sulphureus
(Bear Lentinus), Lentinellus ursinus
(), Leocarpus fragilis
(Wolf’s Milk Slime), Lycogala epidendrum
(Walnut Mycena), Mycena crocea
(Clustered bonnet / oak-stump bonnet cap), Mycena inclinata
(Hexagonal-pored Polypore), Neofavolus alveolaris
(Luminescent Panellus, bitter oyster), Panellus stipticus
(Oyster Mushroom), Pleurotus ostreatus
(Summer Oyster), Pleurotus pulmonarius
(Deer mushroom), Pluteus cervinus
(Black-footed Polypore), Polyporus badius
(), Psathyrella candolleana
(Pigskin Poison Puffball), Scleroderma citrinum
(), Scutellinia subhirtella
(), Steccherinum ochraceum
(Dry rot), Serpula lacrimans
(Crowded Parchment), Stereum complicatum
(False Turkey-tail), Stereum ostrea
(Multicolor Gill Polypore), Trametes betulina
(), Trametes elegans
(Turkey-tail), Trametes versicolor
(Violet Toothed-Polypore), Trichaptum biforme
(White Cheese Polypore), Tyromyces chioneus
(Ceramic Parchment) Xylobolus frustulatus
Species not currently on clubs life list:
Russula sp.
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