Spectacular rustgill

Gymnopilus junonius

Description:

The cap ranges from 7 to 20 cm across, is convex, and is bright orange, orange/brown, or reddish brown with a dry scaly surface. The stem is 25 to 265 mm long, 8 to 9 mm thick, and often narrows near the base. The frail ring is dusted with rusty orange spores, the flesh is yellow and the gill attachment to the stem is adnate to sub-decurrent. It has a bitter taste, stains red with KOH and turns green when cooked in a pan. The spore print is rusty orange. "Each individual mushroom can weigh several pounds. Gymnopilus junonius is a species of mushroom in the Cortinariaceae family. Commonly known as laughing gym, laughing Jim, or the spectacular rustgill, this large orange mushroom is typically found growing on tree stumps, logs, or tree bases. Some subspecies of this mushroom contain the hallucinogenic compound psilocybin.

Habitat:

Gymnopilus junonius is a very widely distributed mushroom which grows in dense clusters on dead hardwoods and conifers. This mushroom grows just about everywhere that decaying wood can be found

Notes:

Spotted in "my" usual mix forest,this one i follow him during many time,and to garantee that people dont breack him like they didi the first one i spot in this log this year,so i make a "fake" Project Noah sign(last pic),saying: Project Noah mushroom under observation do not destroy :-) it works until the day the weigth of the enormous speciem make it fall for one of the sides :-( well it could grow much more next year i hope this log give me the chance to have them here again here is the link of the one that was destroied http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/167... and this is this one when he was more young :-) http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/172...

Species ID Suggestions

23 Comments

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Injica,for your kind words,it's a trick that we can used in many variable situations :-)

injica 11 years ago

Ohoho that's totally ingenious! That wouldn't ever cross my mind but I can already list so many situations when I needed something like that, for example since I was doing lots of astronomy we would all sleep during the day and the equipment would be all around, anybody could have touched it or just throw a certain piece away...well, you is truly a clever idea! Tnx :)

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Pouihi,this place is amazing,this year born two huge ones ,i hopoe next year they show up again :-) the first that someone destroided,was even bigger.
Thanks Injica everytime i tried this strategy ,it work,in 3 completly diferent situations,one in a treaking voyage ,for protecting our car that saty for 3 days in a country road,second to protected the nests and feeding facilitys that i maked and distribuit in my surrounds and now to the mushroom,so it works:-)

injica 11 years ago

Yeah I really like António's strategy too :) I wanna try it too!

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Injica for your nice comment

injica 11 years ago

Amazing fungus!

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Leuba and Argy,this one was so big,for the common that i find,and the first that i saw was destroided,and that decide me to recover my ancien warning sign tecnic,now i have allways 2 or 3 sign's in the pocket when i go to a spotting walk :-)

Leuba Ridgway 11 years ago

Well done Antonio ! - its amazing how many people would take care with a sign like this. Brilliant idea !! Nice pics btw.

Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

Great work Antonio :)

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Maria,i began to use this "strategie" to "protect" artificial bird nests and feeders,that i placed ,when i worked in Project Atlas for the portuguese birds :-) and it works most of the times,people normaly dont vandelize stuff if has a warning sign :-)

Maria dB 11 years ago

What a great idea to put up the sign to protect the mushroom - very creative, Antonio!

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

:-) Thanks hemma,that's describe very well the situation

Hema Shah 11 years ago

Does not pay to be overweight! He brought the family down with his weight!

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Mayra :-)

MayraSpringmann 11 years ago

Wow!!

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Braulio for your kind words

Braulio Rivas Tapia 11 years ago

Stunning!

AntónioGinjaGinja 11 years ago

Thanks Shebebusynow :-) i'll check the movie

shebebusynow 11 years ago

Great find! Those are some of the most impressive mushrooms, so big! If you like ridiculous movies, check out "Attack of the Mushroom People" which I think (who knows) is implying that the "Laughing Mushroom" is behind the bizarre behavior of some people stranded on a remote Japanese island. High camp.