The Urban Pantheist

This time around mizdarkgirl suggested that we walk in the Blakely Hoar Nature Sanctuary in Brookline. We had twice as many people participating as we did January 2014. I took about a million photos, of which I've posted 20 or so:
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Mushrooms in the genus Armillaria are called "honey mushrooms" because of their honey-colored caps. Armillaria gallica is identified by it's bulbous base, cottony partial veil (which has become a cottony ring on the stem on this specimen), and habit of growing apparently out in the open, when we know full well that it is a parasite of tree roots. This species is itself parasitized by Abortive Entoloma, another mushroom-producing fungus. Perhaps the fact most noteworthy about this fungus is that there is one individual in Michigan that is at least 1500 years old and is 37 acres in size, and is estimated to weigh over 10 tons (9700 kg).

What a pipsqueak! There's an Armillaria ostoyae in Oregon that's 2200 acres!

Two dogs playing with the same small stick.


Also, these honey mushrooms were accidentally kicked up from next to the shed. Some more have come up there, and a bunch others are going to be covered with snow in a few hours. This mushroom comes from a fungus that parasitizes the roots of trees. In this case, the roots in question belong to trees that are no longer there. I like to think that they are the roots of the fruit trees that the original owners of the land planted back at the turn of the century. Maybe that's why the trees are gone?

These abortive Entoloma mushrooms Entoloma abortivum/Armillaria gallica emerged among others in profusion around the roots of a Norway maple bordered by the side yard fence and the southwest retaining wall.

Entoloma is a genus of fairly nondescript medium-sized neutral-colored gilled mushrooms that includes both edible and poisonous species. Most are probably mycorrhizal, and are found on open ground near trees. E. abortivum sometimes produces sterile, misshapen, puffball or cauliflower-like fruiting bodies, in association with another the fungus species Armillaria gallica. You may recognize that second fungus genus to be that of the honey mushrooms--the previous species in this project was the ringless honey mushroom Armillaria tabescens.

When it was discovered that these two fungi species interacted to produce "aborted" fruiting bodies, it was assumed that the honey mushroom--known to be a parasite of tree roots--was parasitizing the Entoloma. In 2001, mycologist Tom Volk demonstrated that the "carpophoroid" bodies were actually deformed honey mushrooms, and that Entoloma should be considered a pathogen of Armillaria. A parasite of a parasite.

Surprisingly, this particular species duo is not rare. In fact, these were some of the first mushrooms we discovered in the very first mushroom class I ever took (Habitat in 1998 I think). They appear regularly in various places on Drumlin Farm, and I have found them in other places as well. I was still surprised to find them in my new yard. I'm only counting it as one species, since I'm still ahead of schedule.



http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/sep2006.html

I may have mentioned it before: identifying mushrooms is really difficult.



This group of mushrooms is a little too dry and old to try for a precise identification.  I was almost sure upon looking at them, that they were honey mushrooms.  Unfortunately calling something a "honey mushroom" is like designating a fellow person "an acquaintance."  It unsatisfactorily settles the matter, without telling you much about them.  According to David Aroroa in Mushrooms Demystified, "there is very little that can or cannot be said about the honey mushroom...with at least two distinct widespread variants" making up some 14 different recognized species in the complex.  Species is a slippery designation among fungi.  Suffice it to say, the group of mushrooms pictured is almost certainly in the genus Armillariella (formerly Armillaria).  The fungus can be a symbiote, a parasite, or a saprophyte, and in this case seems to be a parasite on the roots of a cherry tree.  This fungi complex includes the worst diseases of trees in California, as well as the mycelium often called the largest organism on earth, a four square mile patch of fungus living in the soil of eastern Oregon.   Arora prounounces honey mushrooms "eminently edible" while the Simon and Schuster guide warns that the mushroom is toxic until cooked, and is too easily confused with nonedible species to risk eating.