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Project Noah Nature School
Agaricus subrutilescens
These mushrooms had concave caps about 45 mm wide. Caps were covered with dense greyish-brown scales and had slightly depressed and smooth centres. Cap margins had a soft white edge suggestive of a remnant partial veil. Gills were pink, crowded and notched. Stipe was white with delicate fibrils below the ring. In some mushrooms ( not seen here) the stipe above the ring had a pink blush. The ring was seen in the upper third of the stipe and was short and skirt-like.
National Forest - in a section with cultivated garden beds of mixed native trees. Spotted growing in leaf litter.
These mushrooms were gregarious.
Thanks gully.moy. I realise that with only 5% out of 250,000 of Australian fungi formally identified, I can't get an ID from just the one observation or without expert help. If I have no joy with ALA or another source, I will go to Mushroomobserver.
The reason I leave Agaricus IDs with at most a "similar to" identification is that there are literally hundreds of different species and are very hard to correctly identify without looking at microscopic structures.
That being said, when collecting Agaricus species it can be particularly helpful to record any smell (often strongest at the base of the stem), typically anise, phenolic, briney, that of almonds or just mushroomy. If they smell appetising they should be edible, but you have to really trust your nose. The colour the flesh turns upon cutting can also help, usually red or yellow and how quickly and intensely the stain occurs.
If you're still keen to see how close you can get with this identification I'd recommend uploading it to Mushroom Observer, that's where the real pros hang out :-)
http://mushroomobserver.org/
CorduneanuVlad, Thanks for looking at this spotting. I am sorry, I don' think that this is A.augustus-there are several inconsistencies. I have an earlier spotting of A.augustus
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/116...
a. A.augustus : Mature caps are really large and very pale, gills of young caps are a creamish brown, cap tops have a brown flat scales which appeared to be arranged in concentric rings ?.
b. The mushroom in this spotting had an overall appearance of a purplish pink with softer brown scales. The gills of the young mushroom were a deep rosy red (not just a pale pink like some young agarics) and definitely not cream/pale brown. The largest caps were only about 90 mm wide.
The most outstanding feature was these mushrooms totally blended in with the grey-brown leaf litter whereas, A.augustus stands really proud and tall like its name.
I am going to submit this to the Atlas of Living Australia as A.subrutilescens to see if they'll accept the ID. Thanks again for your help.
Has features of A. austrovinaceous. But can't find much information or photos as yet.
Thanks Luis. Frustrating when you can't ID these !
These look like very much like A. haemorrhoidarius as suggested by gully.moy but to my inexperienced eye, they also look like A.subrutilescens ?? and what's worse is I can't find any information on either species occurring in Australia. Might have been brought in with the conifers here.
This is a mushroom similar to Mark Ridgway's spotting http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/255... - we found them in different spots but in the same area. His mushrooms were more mature and the gills, a deep rosy pink.
@ gully.moy, I will keep looking for information for your suggested species here in Oz for a little longer and then put it up as a query...thanks for your help.
Spotted on Jun 3, 2013
Submitted on Jun 12, 2013
