Life on the Outer Coast

Collected a few mushrooms from the cedar dominated forest west of the Gavan Hill trail. There were several species that I hadn't noticed previously (yes, I've been sleep walking for years).

Chroogomphus vinicolor: I've found a number of Chroogomphus tomentosus, but never this species, but I haven't spent alot of time looking for fungi in cedar dominated sites. Cedar is not an ectomycorrhizal species, so the fungi that I've spent most of my time looking for are not present.

The overall size and shape are similar to C. tomentosus, but the color is darker and red brown. It kind of had a dark red wine sort of color to it, but I would have poured the wine through a filter before I drank it. The cap was smooth and viscid when wet, and dried to a nice sheen. The gills are distant and decurrant. This mushroom is most reliably differentiated from a similar species (C. rutilis more properly known as C. ochraceous) by the thick walled cystidia. Happily this feature was quite distinct.
Conifer forest, particularly those with Pine is where this species is said to grow in the PNW. I found it growing in a scrubby mixed conifer (Cedar, Western Hemlock) forest near a muskeg. There was Lysichiton americanum in the understory. There were several individuals in the area, growing on the ground. C. vinicolor is mycorrhizal. This species is edible, but these were too far gone to tempt me. I'm fairly certain that all Chroogomphus turn purple when cooked , but I'm not sure which pigment is responsible, what was interesting was that some of the ones I brought home developed purple stains after a couple of days. Decompostion?http://www.svims.ca/council/Gomphi.htm

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/chroogomphus_vinicolor.html

The next two species gave me a bit of grief. One because I was impatient and the other because I haven't yet found a great species match. They are both members of the Entolomataceae, with pink spores and Omphaloid stature, more apparent in one (gray/brown) than the other. Both were growing on the ground near cedar.

Leptonia serrulata: This should have been easy. It has a black or purple black, cap about 2 cm across, the gills were distant and white with a very striking black edge. The stem was gray/purple/black, slender about 3.5cm long.
This one drove me a little crazy and is a fine example of why one should make a spore print before proceeding with a new species. When I first looked at it, I didn’t notice the slight omphaloid stature and decided it was a Mycena. Oh my, that was kind of a frustrating error. Even looked at the spores and decided that perhaps a Mycena could have slightly angular/nodulose spores. Kept trying all sorts of keys and descriptions and just couldn’t cram it into any species. Gave up and went to sleep in the hope that it would all make sense in the morning. Indeed it did, the pink spore print was quite useful.

Leptonia in CA “fond of fruiting under fern fronds in redwood duff” In the PNW “frequent under alder and western red cedar”. There were two growing on the ground on a vertical eroded edge near the base of a Yellow Cedar.

The other species of Leptonia was less distinct. The cap was small, 1.2 cm , closest to gray/yellow/brown, with distinct umbo, cap flesh thin and white. The margin was distinctly striate. The gills were white, widely spaced and waxy, somewhat decurrent, the stipe whitish gray, 2mm wide, 5cm tall.

It keyed to Leptonia undulatella in Arora. I don't have a good description of this species, so I'm less than certain of its identity.

Lepiota magnispora (saprophyte): This is new species for me, in fact I don't remember finding a Lepiota in the "wild" up here before. The most similar mushrooms are the yellow sometimes found on soil in house plants. This particular Lepiota was growing on cedar and seemed to be attached to dead wood in a notch near the base of a pair of trees growing very close to one another. Lepiota wasn't on Hennon's list of cedar fungi.

In "Mushrooms Demystified" this keys out to Lepiota clypeolaria, I was happy with that, Arora mentions that clypeolaria probably represents a collective species, so what else is new? However looking at the description of and commentary about L. cypeolaria at the Mushroom Expert site, made me a bit less certain about the identification. Had to turn to the microscope to positively identify this species. The spores are quite long with a small hooked beak. This species is also supposed to have brighter colors and a more distinct "eye" in the center of the cap.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lepiota_magnispora.html

http://www.svims.ca/council/Lepiota.htm

Macrotyphyla juncea: also known as Fairy Hair. It is a very slender light colored slender fungus less than 2 inches tall and probably around a millimeter or two wide. They were growing on dead cedar foliage. They were quite abundant once one's eye was oriented to their overall look. Basically they looked like thick threads sticking up from the duff. http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Macrotyphula_juncea.html

Also noticed Russula bicolor and Russula fragilis in the woods.

The Cortinarius on left was growing closer to the trail. The cap is quite viscid with a distinctive color pattern. The veil fibrils are noticable on the stem. The spores were bright rusty brown, so I'm content with calling it a Cortinarius, but admit that it could be a Hebeloma.

On the way back to UAS picked a Russula from the roadside under the spruce and alders near the ramp. THe spore print is quite yellow and the taste intensely hot. It keyed to Russula queletii in the PNW key. The description from PNW reads:

CAP 4-10 cm, purplish red, wine purple, brownish violet, usually fairly dark, drying pruinose, fleshy, peeling 1/2 to 2/3, striate only in age; flesh white. ODOR pleasant. TASTE very hot. GILLS cream, subdecurrent, close. STEM strong red or purplish. SPORE PRINT cream to light yellow: HABITAT conifers.

The remarks section was kind of amusing, I translated the following to mean that we included this information to comfort you poor fools who indulge in Russula identification.

REMARKS " we have included the descriptions to comfort the many who will find purple capped, red or purple-stemmed, hot-tasting Russulas with creamy spores."