A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Gymnopilus sp.
Three brownish mushrooms, in appearance evocative of, and in size only slightly larger than, bottle caps.
Mixed native and alien lower elevation tropical montane forest
Spotted along Kealia Trail between the third and fourth switchbacks. Of the three images, the first is an overview showing three individuals, the second is zoomed in on the two individuals on the left of image one and the third is an attempt to capture a macro view of the underside of the upper left individual in image one. That last view is unfortunately out of focus. I don't know what the camera decided to focus on, but it wasn't the desired subject.
Spotted on Feb 2, 2013
Submitted on Feb 3, 2013
8 Comments
Interesting idea, though a change to your proposed name would be in order; my daughter actually saw this spotting first. To her should go any credit for this discovery. Meanwhile, to get to the point of naming it, specimens would first have to be collected for description. That would require taking on a new mission, switching from randomly noting whatever one happens upon to searching for (and finding!) more of this species.
And that user knows his Gymnopili!
New species are quite often found on places where the mycology hasn't been intensively studied. An isolated island like Hawaii is a good example. But it's still exciting and particularly seeing as it's a fairly large, distinctive mushroom and possibly magic! If you were to collect a good range of specimens at different stages of growth and carefully dry them you could possibly find a mycologist willing to describe them for you. How does Gymnopilus hoofii sound :-)
Thanks for the feedback. One commenter on Mushroom Observer wrote, "its cleary an undescribed species…" Interesting, but I suspect that "undescribed species" are found fairly frequently.
Wow, Gymnopilus, I wasn't thinking that! It's certainly sparked a lot of interest, and from some great mycologists. Good find and be sure to pick, document and dry any future finds in the name of science - I'm glad you posted it on Mushroom observer :-)
With regards to your question about the presence of hallucinogens, many species of mushroom in the genus Gymnopilus contain the psychoactive (hallucinogenic or simply 'active' for short) alkaloids psilocybin and psilocin. Blue and green bruising is often an indication of the later, purplish bruising could be but it's hard to know without testing.
Thanks for the suggestion, which I have followed. Here is the link:
http://mushroomobserver.org/128359
Perhaps I'm well out with Pholiota. Consider posting them on Mushroom Observer if you are keen to find out what they are.
http://mushroomobserver.org/
If you do, post a link to their page here so we can track their progress.
Thanks for the input. I checked in "Mushrooms of Hawai'i" (Hemmes and Desjardin) and found one Pholiota species listed (Pholiota peleae). The individuals pictured in the book (and online) appear somewhat similar to those in this spotting but not similar enough to make me believe we have a positive ID with P. peleae. In addition, the reference does not show Oahu (where the spotting occurred) as part of its range.
Interesting mushrooms! I'm not sure but since they're growing from a tree, have a slightly scaly cap and appear to be dropping rusty brown spores on the veil remnants I'd guess they're some exotic Pholiota...