Mushroom ID
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Look Very Closely

From the point of view of the mushroom collector the following are some of what you need to observe in order to identify a mushroom species.
  •  Habitat, Where the fungi is found.
            In Woods
            On ground
            On soil
            In grass
            On duff
            On wood
  • Dead wood - saprophytic w/what species
  • Living wood - parasitic on what species
  • Symbiotic on what species
  • On dung
  • On other fungi
  • Below ground

 Mushroom characteristics

Universal veil
  • Absent
  • Present
  • Slime layer
  • Volva
  • Dry tissue
  •                 Sac like
  •                 Friable
  •                 Breaking up into scales

                    Cap

  • Absent
  • Present
  • Shape
  • Conical
  • Convex
  • Flat
  • Concave
  • Funnel
  • Color
  •     Usually almost any color except true green
  •     Combination of colors
  •     Darker center
  •     Darker edge

Surface texture

  • Smooth
  • Leathery
  • Felted
  • Hairy
  • Crackled
  • Slimy
  • Size

Tissue texture

  • Firm
  • soft

Cap edge

  • Plane
  • Inrolled
  • Striate
  • Deliquescent

Veil or ring
  • Absent
  • Present
  • Slimy
  • Fibrous
  • Cortina:     this is composed of very fine fibers that connect the edge of the cap with the stem. Mushrooms that have a cortina are usually in the cortinarius family. On mature specimens the cortina is only visible as minute fibers that may be visible because of the deposit of spore on them. Since the spores of most cortinarius are brown then they show as brown filaments hanging on the stem.

                How it breaks

  • Cog wheel
  • From stem
  • From edge of cap

 

Spore bearing surface (hymenium)

Gills

  • Attachment to stem
  •     Free
  •     Adnate
  •     Notched
  •     Decurrent
  • Gill edges
  •     Smooth
  •     Wavy
  •     Serrate
  • Differently colored
  • Secrete milk when broken or cut
  •         Color of secretion when fresh
  •         Color of secretion when not fresh

Pores

    External

  •             Color
  •             Color change on being damaged, bruised or on aging
  •             Easily freed from cap tissue
  •             Not easily freed from cap tissue

    Internal

  •             Color
  •             Color change when cut
  •             Color unchanging when cut

    Columella

  • Absent
  • Present

Toothed

  • Pimples on exterior surface of fungal body
  • Spores if available from spore print
  • Color
  •           Colorless to black
  • Other characteristics are only available by using a microscope because the spores are too small to be seen without magnification.

    Stem
    • Absent
    • Present

                Shape

    • Straight
    • Tapered
    • Bulbous
    • Rooting
    • W/ rhizomorphs
    • W/ mycelial mat

    Size        Measure it!

    • Length
    • Diameter

    Texture

    • Fibrous
    • Brittle

    Hollow

    • W/string
    • W/o string

    Not hollow i.e. solid

    Growth habit

    • Solitary
    • Clustered
    •     From single growing point (ceaspitose)
    •     From many growing points

    Smell

    • Pleasant
    • None
    • Mushroomy
    • Unpleasant
    • Phenolic
    • Seminal
    • Anise or almondy
    • Other

    Taste

    • Pleasant
    • None
    • Bland
    • Bitter
    • Very bitter
    • Peppery
    • Pungent
    • other

    01/03/2003
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