I could not find this white mushroom with attached gills in any of my field guides in book form:
Without COMA I would have been struggling for days to figure this out. I had not planned to attend the joint CVMS-COMA event. But this one-day foray, may finally have narrowed the possibilities.
I love the metaphor I learned at the COMA foray. Mushrooms, like people have their childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age, with accompanying changes in appearance. I sure do not look like my kindergarten photo – or even my wedding photo, for that matter.
Can you figure out what this mushroom is?
If you said Blewit (Clitocybe nuda), you might be correct. The bulb-shaped base of the stem fits the description and it does produce a pinkish-buff spore print.
At least you can rule out the toxic Cortinarius species, since this mushroom does not have a cortina and the spore print is not brown.
I wanted this to be a choice edible Clitocybe nuda. I even found photos on mushroom expert Michael Kuo’s site of what looks like a white Blewit to me.
It’s vital to study each and every part of a mushroom to ensure identification. So when I saw and smelled this mushroom at the one-day foray, and read the label Lepistra Irina,I was left wondering whether this is an entirely different mushroom or whether this is another incident where mycologists have changed the botanical name.
i found a very white mushroom yesterday in the woods here in galway ireland. it looks like a ‘white mushroom’ but it’s underneath is entirely white as well, there is not dark underside whatsoever. it’s heavy for it’s size and firm. is it an albino? any luck with your white mushroom?
Melanie, thanks very much for visiting my site and taking the time to comment.
Mushroom identification begins with looking at where the mushroom is growing. Was it on the ground, or on a dead log or on a tree trunk?
Was the cap dry or slightly sticky? Did the underside of the mushroom have gills, pores, “teeth” or tubes?
Did the mushroom have a stem? Was it long or short, tapered or with a bulb-like bottom? Did it have a ring or a veil?
As you can see, there are a lot of details to look at. One of the MOST IMPORTANT things you can do to help identify the mushroom is to make a SPORE PRINT. To do this, set the cap on a piece of paper – like a brown paper bag – with the underside of the mushroom on the paper. Cover the mushroom with a small bowl and check it periodically. It could take anywhere from an hour to a day for the mushroom to release its spores.
What you will see is a pattern of the mushroom. The color of that pattern is an important clue to the mushroom’s identification.
I hope one day to travel around the world studying mushrooms as my teachers have done. One thing I have learned is that a mushroom growing, say in Ireland, may look exactly like a mushroom that grows here in New York – but because the climate and the soil are different – they could very well be two different mushrooms.
I hope this inspires you to continue studying mushrooms. If there is a mushroom club near you, joining is one of the best investments you can make, since you would have the benefit of the knowledge of fellow members.
Happy Trails.