A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Chlorophyllum molybdites
White mushroom with conical cap and brown stalk ~ 130 mm tall, cap diameter ~ 125 mm, stalk diameter ~ 10 mm.
Suburban neighborhood on tropical upland plateau.
Spotted growing at the edge of a strip of lawn between the sidewalk and street at the edge of a driveway in a suburban development. The first image shows the mushroom at the time of the last observation on Sep 7. It was one of two individuals first spotted on Sep 5 at which time it had just emerged but was already ~ 80 cm tall and its stem was its final size (~ 10 mm in diameter). Its cap, ~ 20 mm in diameter, was still closed and mostly covered with a brown universal veil (image 2). By the night of Sep 5, though its cap remained closed, it had grown to 100 mm tall. By Sep 6, it was ~ 130 mm tall--its final height--and its cap had opened into a convex shape ~ 110 mm in diameter. The universal veil had disintegrated into brown scales (images 3 and 4). The gills were white and it had a dark brown annulus; the stem was white above the annulus (image 5--the mesh visible at the left edge was in the mirror used to get the image, not in the spotting). By Sep 7, the cap had lost its convex shape and the gills had darkened, appearing grayish (image 6). When the spotting site was checked in the late afternoon of Sep 7, both individuals were gone, without trace, preventing further monitoring. To close the loop, the second individual, which emerged nearby and was not monitored, was deformed. Its opened cap was segmented, like blades on a fan and twisted.
Spotted on Oct 5, 2014
Submitted on Oct 9, 2014
7 Comments
I like this one: "Silence means consent." :))
Vlad, sorry for not responding more promptly. I have decided that two's a majority and changed the spotting from "unidentified" to Chlorophyllum molybdites. Also, I posted it as such in a mycological forum and have received no feedback, in particular, no disagreement. "Silence means consent." See: http://mushroomobserver.org/182160?q=2H3...
Yep, I think it's the False parasol judging from the last picture.
Thanks for the feedback, Vlad. I'm aware of the green-gills characteristic of Chlorophyllum molybdites; hence the name, derived from the Greek word "chloros", light/pale green. However, when I suggested it as a possible ID, I was aware that from Sep 6 to 7, the gills had darkened (and look as green as those in some pictures online), but you weren't. I was remiss because I hadn't posted supporting visual evidence. I have now done so, deleting my original sixth image, of the deformed second individual, and replacing it with a new sixth image, of the darkened gills of the individual under discussion.
As to Chlorophyllum hortense, it is not listed in Mushrooms of Hawaii as being present in Hawaii, though that work is not encylopedic. Neither is it specifically stated to be present in Hawaii in a Wikipedia stub I looked at. Finally, in pictures online its appearance seems significantly different from this spotting.
The distingushing feature of Chlorophyllum molybdites is that the gills have agreenish tinge... not always though.
Maybe this is something in the same family, Chlorophyllum hortense maybe...
Thanks Vlad. Your input provided some focus, so I checked a couple of things.
While Mushroom of Hawaii (Hemmes, Don E. and Dennis E. Desjardin, 2002) does not list any Macrolepiota sp., it reports that Macrolepiota rachodes, which does not occur in Hawaii, is similar in appearance to Chlorophyllum molybdites, which does.
http://www.mykoweb.com/TFWNA/P-09.html has a picture of Chlorophyllum molybdites which is remarkably similar to the first image of this spotting.
Some other pictures of Chlorophyllum molybdites on the web sustain the idea that this may be a spotting of that species. However, other pictures do not, so I won't settle on Chlorophyllum molybdites, as the correct ID just yet.
This mushroom resembles Macrolepiota Excoriata, possibly this is something in the same family.