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Oudemansiella mucida
The caps of this lovely mushroom are rounded and tend to remain broadly domed rather than completely flat as the fruiting bodies mature. The caps can grow 2 to 8 cm in diameter are semi-transparent and white. The gills show through the thin cap flesh, giving the margin a striate appearance. A mucous slime covers the cap during wet weather. The gills of the porcelain fungus are translucent white at first, sometimes developing an ochre tint as the fruiting body ages, adnate, broad and very distant. The stems are 3 to 7 mm in diameter, up to 8 cm long, and often curved so as to bring the cap to the horizontal in situations where large tufts of porcelain fungi are attached to a small area of the host. The stems are slender, with a substantial stem ring. Above the ring the stem is white, below the ring it is slightly striate and greyish.
Oudemansiella mucida occurs throughout northern Europe, but in southern Europe where beech is not found the porcelain fungus is also absent. It is saprobic on stumps, trunks and branches of dead beech trees and also weakly parasitic upon living beech trees, often very high up.
Spotted near Hoenderloo, Veluwe, Holland. (sources: see reference)
Spotted on Nov 1, 2020
Submitted on Nov 5, 2020
2 Comments
I agree, Mark. That's certainly a bummer that they can't be found in Australia. Though Oudemansiella australis is pretty too, but perhaps a little less flamboyant :)
Wow these always look special. Not in our parts unfortunately.