Coastal

Ganoderma chalceum, an Australian reishi?

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Australian Ganoderma chalceum

Australian Ganoderma chalceum

Ganoderma chalceum is a fungi that always reminds me of reishi, from the shiny lacquered top to the way it produces strange and varying shapes when fruiting. In NE NSW Australia this is a reasonably common species that seems to have quite specific requirements. I almost always find it growing on dead mountain oak logs, Allocasuarina torulosa (I think). It grows in moist forest or rain forest down by the creek. I thought I would delve into this fungi for my blog to see if I can show that it is indeed a close cousin to the reishi family. Since reishi is not just a single species and has a wide distribution I will start there.  Well actually I’m not sure if I can untangle the many species of ganoderma that people use for medicine and refer to as reishi. Ganoderma is a taxonomic mess of over 200 species many have multiple names or have ended up in questionable positions. Reishi or ganoderma lucidum and allies comprise a number of different species in the northern hemisphere, over ten different species. One in particular is worth noting here, the black stalked g. japonicum/sinense.

Australian Ganoderma chalceum

Australian Ganoderma chalceum

Ganoderma chalceum is better known as g. cupreum, an older name for (probably) the same species group. This paper suggests that g. cupreum is closely related to g. sinense but this link does not really prove that cupreum has any of the same medicinal properties as the well studied sinense. This paper examines Australian, Asian and African cupreum and its worth noting that at least one of the Australian samples was found on Allocasuarina. This also suggest that cupreum is a group rather then a single pantropic species. A close Australian relative to chalceum, Ganoderma steyaertanum is being sold as “Australian reishi” and touted as being a medicinal mushroom with the same properties as g. lucidum. I hope this is based on science and not assumption, my attempts to find out have so far been unsuccessful. However g. steyaertanum does seem to be genetically close to g. lucidum from Asia.  G. chalceum and g. steyaertanum are difficult to tell apart the latter being sometimes significantly larger. Its also worth noting that much of the literature on these two species is to do with them being pathogens of some tree and palm species. This key from QMS is kinda helpful and shows four “reishi like” ganoderma in SE QLD.

Australian Ganoderma chalceum

Australian Ganoderma chalceum

Well, after several hours of reading and searching I have not really got an answer. Its certainly possible that these Australian ganoderma have some or all of the properties of reishi but it seems to me that they would need to be studied more closely to really determine the truth. G. lucidium and allies have a huge number of potentially active compounds, over 100 polysaccharides and 119 triterpenoids along with many other unique compounds. If your interested in learning more about this its hard to top Paul Stamets book Mycelium Running. Its likely that consuming small quantities of these Australian species would be ok but even true reishi is not without possible side effects. Without some better information regarding the chemical makeup of these Aussie reishi’s I would be hesitant to take their extracts long term. This species is an open book and I hope to add more to this post in the future. These species would make a great topic for a PHD student or someone with the skills and equipment to properly examine them. If you have anything to add to this post I would be more than happy to hear from you in the comments or via email.

Australian Autumn Yellow Morels

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Australian Morels are not a common find but we have a bunch of species of black and yellow morels. The Morchella esculenta group is quite a large closely related family of yellow morels with m. esculenta found only in Europe and China.  However in the past Esculenta was used as a generic name for yellow morels but with advances in DNA analysis esculenta has been broken up into a number of species. I have already written about a yellow morel I found locally And truth be told this new lot looks very similar, the only real difference is the season. The first lot I found fruit in spring but this year the autumn yellow morels have had a bumper year fruiting from the Hunter north into Queensland. The above photo was from a suburban front yard not far from where I live. The back of the house has native bushland but these were in the front yards under a stand of palms and some other native landscape trees.

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A French Morel expert thinks these yellow morels are Morchella galilaea or close. This is a species known to fruit in Autumn and that has been confirmed in NZ and Java along with a number of other countries. I have two samples that I will be sending to get sequenced and I will try to find out if anyone else has looked at the Aussie ones. I’ve had my first find from a few years ago sequenced and they are not a close match to galilaea. I was lucky enough to have this patch shown to me and the man who did told me that they were a fine and tasty treat. I did not pick enough to taste, just a couple for science. I will update this post if I can find out more.

Mycena chlorophos

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Glowing mushrooms are always a hit, in my part of Australia we have two common species, omphalotus nidiformis and mycena chlorophos. With a wide distribution across the Asia pacific mycena chlorophos is well known and appreciated by many. These fungi are common in rainforest and many other forests and gardens across the eastern parts of Australia. I was out spotlighting the other night when I came to a mushroomy sort of spot so I turned off the light and got just the slightest glimpse of a tiny glow in the undergrowth. Honing in on the spot under a large clump of native ferns I found the above four mushrooms growing on a piece of dead wood. To get the above image I used a tripod and a long exposure setting on the camera. While taking the shots a couple of times the flash went off so I was able to get the same image below which is nice as it shows what the mushrooms would look like during the day.

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I the obvious question is why do they glow? and the answer is not so easy but the most probable reason is around spore dispersal. Most fungi have some kind of strategy to get their seeds spread far and wide. Puff balls create vast quantities of spores that can puff out and drift away on the air currents. Morels are delicious so the picker becomes the seed distributer. In the case of glowing mushrooms many insects are attracted by light so its likely that the small critters feasting on the mushroom are also helping to spread the spores. Since this is a blog about edible fungi I guess I should try to answer the question that is so often asked when a mushroom is encountered; Can I eat it? The short answer is no. Omphalotus can look much like oyster mushrooms so I can understand why people would want to eat them in fact I’ve done it myself (omphalotus are poisonous for the record and I only ate a small bit, don’t worry I’m fine!) mycena chlorophos are tiny so it would be a waste of time to try to eat them and they are probably slightly poisonous too. I have heard a story perhaps an urban legend of a fella who while already intoxicated decided it would be a good idea to eat the glowing shrooms, needless to say he ended up quite ill but we may never know if it was the mushrooms. One last interesting fact that applies more broadly to glowing mushrooms and may not always be the case. They don’t glow during the day but only during the dark hours. This is probably a strategy to conserve energy. I have found what I thought were glowing mycena during the day and put them inside my shirt in the dark only to be disappointed by the absence of any glow. So if your after glowing fungi head out at night. 

Australian Pleurotus tuber-regium

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Australian Pleurotus tuber-regium

Australian Pleurotus tuber-regium

Jsun from Mushroaming put me onto Pleurotus Tuber-regium more then a few years ago and to be honest I had just about given up ever finding them. This summer we have La nina in fine form and have had about half a meter of rain in the last month or so. Its early January so I thought it was worth checking a Hoop pine plantation not far from where I live. Its hot steamy weather and the mozzies are thick. walking thru tall eucalypt forest there is almost no mushrooms around but enter the 30 plus year old hoop pines and there are fungi, at least ten different types but the largest and most noticeable by far are the tuber-regium. Some must be over 20cm high, caps on some are over 150mm across. They are beautiful and elegant fungi. Digging around the tubers are quite small, between the size of a ping pong ball and a tennis ball, some are down about 5 to 10 cm but others are on the surface below the leaf litter. These are a tropical fungi that grow in many parts of the world, in east Africa they are used as food and medicine. With the caps and tubers being eaten.  With such a wide distribution its likely that this is a species group rather then just one single species. 

Australian Pleurotus tuber-regium

Australian Pleurotus tuber-regium

Edible eh, I’ve been here before. The caps remind me of Lentinus sajor caju in texture both cooked and uncooked. The flavour is not bad but there is a bitter after taste of the very young cap I try sauted. I expect that the larger caps may be quite chewy. In Africa they are sometimes cooked like meat in stews. It seems that the tuber is the more useful food but I find them very hard and dry. I fry some and boil some. The flavour is not terrible but they are not really palatable. They remind me of the texture of gyprock. In Africa the tubers are soaked for over 12 hours then ground into a paste. The past is used in a soup or mixed with corn flour and fried. Sounds good but I’m probably not the person to try this, if you do tho, please let me know how you go! In the link above they describe some of the medicinal uses for the fungi, they tell use it can treat small pox, heart problems, asthma and obesity some tribes even use it as one of the ingredients to embalm a dead body. This paper claims that P. tuber-regium can degrade polyethylene film. The mushroom also catches and eats soil nematodes. This is a really beautiful and interesting fungi but probably not a choice edible for many.

Australian Smooth Chanterelle

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Australian Smooth Chanterelle

Australian Smooth Chanterelle

These Australian smooth chanterelles are found in NENSW and SEQLD at least tho may be more widespread, they are not common but can fruit heavily where they do grow. They seem to like intact eucalypt forest or the euc rain forest cross overs that we get in this area. I find them in April and May after good rain. They seem to fruit in the same spots year after year. As far as I can tell its an undescribed species or group that is either in the Cantharellus or Gloeocantharellus genus. A couple of people have had dna done and the results did not find a match, here is a voucher number for the sample lodged by the Victoria hebarium KP311393. No one that I have asked in the Aussie mushroom community has much info on them. QMS has got a couple tentative IDs Cantharellus ochraceoravus based on this paper on Australian chants which is just a review of the literature. QMS also calls them Gloeocantharellus ‘soloris’ I’m not sure what they base this on.

Australian Smooth Chanterelle

Australian Smooth Chanterelle

Their folds become more evident as they mature but never become the false gills of a regular chant, they are also massive in comparison to the other chant species I have seen, the largest one I found weighed about 130g. Their flesh is solid and firm. They often branch as you can see in the photo above. I have eaten them a couple times, they have great texture but not much in the way of flavor. Dry frying them over medium heat is a good technique to maximize flavour. I have also pickled them after dry frying, I found them very tasty done this way. I would love to share more about this species but this is about all I have, maybe just one more photo! If you want to read more about our Aussie chants please take a look at my other articles that can be found via this list of edibles.

Australian Smooth Chanterelle

Australian Smooth Chanterelle

 

Psilocybe Cubensis: Cubes or Gold tops

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Australian psilocybe cubensis, Gold tops

Australian psilocybe cubensis, Gold tops

This post on psilocybe cubensis is for ID purposes only. Information on consuming this mushroom is not contained in this article and it should be noted that possession of this mushroom is illegal in Australia. When ever I mention that I’m interested in foraging for mushrooms I get a wink and a smile because people assume that I am out looking for gold tops, one of the most widespread and common magic mushrooms across the Tropical and Sub-tropical regions of the world. Truth is I rarely see this mushroom in the wild and it took many hours of sleuthing to find any at all to photograph for this post. Growing up on the north coast of NSW gold tops have always been part of the ‘folk lore’ of this region and something I’ve been aware of since child hood. In my day it was almost a rite of passage to go out hunting for these mushrooms. I’m not sure what todays youth think about picking these mushroom but it is a species that could be encountered when looking for edible species such as Macrolepiota dolichaula or Field Mushrooms and other agaricus species

Australian psilocybe cubensis, Gold tops

Australian psilocybe cubensis, Gold tops

Some key features of this mushroom: It (almost) always fruits on dung, particularly cow dung in grassy fields. It can be quite large, sometimes over 10 cm across and 15cm high. As you can see in the above photo they can also be very small. The cap starts out cinnamon brown and bell shaped before opening out into the more classic mushroom shape with a golden yellow umbo. It can have small white scales on the cap that are remnants of the veil. A long fibrous stem that will bruise blue when damaged. Its has a ring and a large floppy veil that can be quite dark when it is stained by the dark purple black spores. The gills start out creamy white then become grey before going dark grey or black. Cubes fruit in the warmer months after rain. They are more often found in paddocks that have not been intensively farmed and fertilized. There are some lookalikes such as Agaricus ‘gold umbo’ and agrocybe preacox. There are also a number of other mushrooms found growing in dung, and at least one other magic mushroom that stains blue, panaeolus cyanescens aka the blue meanie. These have similar characteristics but are much more slender and don’t have a ring on the stem. If you are reading this post because you or someone you know has eaten some psilocybe cubensis I can suggest you read this fact sheet and I will pass on the advice of well known American mycologist David Arora who writes: “In cases of accidental ingestion or a ‘bad trip’ the victim should be repeatedly assured that the effects are temporary. A factor to bear in mind is that transferring the person to an unfamiliar environment (such as a hospital) can be frightening and that sedatives may worsen the effects, especially if administered forcibly….Symptoms are similar to LSD. Shortly after ingestion and for a duration of several hours the “victim” experiences….elation or hilarity and hallucinations or delusions.” From Mushrooms Demystified. Over doses and deaths are very rare.  There is much more to be said about the history and traditions around this mushroom and its use recreationally and in medical trails but I will leave that to others to tell.

Brick Red Marasmius, an interesting species

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A sub-tropical Australian Marasmius species

A sub-tropical Marasmius species

This species came to my attention last year when someone just to the south posted a photo on a facebook page. A couple of days later I found a small ring growing in grass near the coast. It checked all the boxes for marasmius, at least to my limited experience with the species. This year I have seen last seasons patch fruit again with a second ring near by. I have also found it growing in a second location, again in a ring on a lawn by the coast. With a white spore print, widely spaced gills, prominent umbo and a tough unbreakable stem it seems very close to marasmius oreades. The first DNA result came back as , 91% Marasmius occultatiformis (KF774161) but then a couple of days later Pablo sent thru a better result. 97.58% Marasmius aurantioferrugineus (MK278334), and other species of Marasmius, this last note opens up a wide list of possiblities. MK278334  looks like a species from South Korea. There are some photos of Marasmius aurantioferrugineus from Japan here and here. I have no idea if this species is edible but I am not aware of any toxic marasmius species. I have since heard of other reports of red marasmius in southern Queensland. QMS has listed two similar looking species but they have put them in the very closely related collybia genus. Collybia subdryophyla and Collybia alutacea though both these records are mushrooms that were found in mulch or leaf litter rather then grass. Another possibility is the Marasmius heinemannianus group tho these mushrooms are found in the northern hemisphere and seem to be smaller. People on the Australian mushroom groups seem to call the SEQ mushrooms Marasmius vagus, another North American species however this paper says that m. vagus has been introduced to Florida from Australia. Either way I’m not convinced that M. Vagus is the same species as the ones pictured here. Another update on this post is that I have since documented m. oreades in the New England area to my west.

Australian sub-tropical red Marasmius species. Marasmius vagus.

A sub-tropical Marasmius species

Australian Chanterelles: The Martin Martini Trifecta.

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Australian smooth chanterelles, center Cantharellus concinnus, right Cantharellus viscosus

Martins trifecta: Left Australian smooth chanterelles, center Cantharellus concinnus, right Cantharellus viscosus

There are plenty of people around that like to forage mushrooms but only some have the ability to really find the goods and Martin is one of those rare people. A few years ago he lit up the mushroom pages with baskets full of chanterelles. In Australia this is not a common occurrence. Martins finds inspired awe and not just a little mushroom envy from the Aussie foraging community. This season Martin was kind enough to show me one of his spots where I picked the yellow and smooth chants for the first time. Martin gave me a few tips and a new perspective on what to look for and where to look for Australian chanterelles. Back home I put in the hours and after almost no success I finally found a tiny shriveled yellow chant. This pathetic dried out mushroom lead me to find one of the best mushroom patches I’ve ever come across, a patch with all three varieties in abundance!

Left cantharellus concinnus, center Australian smooth chanterelles, right cantharellus viscosus

Left cantharellus concinnus, center Australian smooth chanterelles, right cantharellus viscosus

FoQ lists five chant species but there are a few more species like these beauties from FNQ. There are also Gloeocantharellus species and even some false chanterelles maybe Gomphus sp. The only recent reference on Australian Cantharellus is only confident to list three species of the 14 type specimens looked at in the paper and says “In Australia the genus cantharellus is without doubt not restricted to these three species. More field studies are needed to document the diversity of the systematically and bio-geographically very interesting Australian mycoflora”. For example these Big fat smooth chanterelles are yet to be described in 2019! Any taxonomists out there wanting to get there teeth into something?

The big double smooth chant on the left weighed 135g! Bottom left are the yellow viscosus and bottom right are the orange concinnus.

The big double smooth chant on the left weighed 135g! Bottom left are the yellow viscosus and bottom right are the orange concinnus.

I guess the big question with these chants is how do they taste? The answer is probably somewhat disappointing at least with these three species. I find their taste pretty bland and very similar, the yellows and smooths have the best texture but the concinnus have the best flavour. I got a tip to dry fry them until well coloured then added a bit of olive oil and salt and they came out tasting pretty good. Unfortunately they are not as tasty as the northern hemispheres varieties. I also had a go at dry frying then pickling the large smooth chants and they also came out pretty good. Word is the yellow chants from FNQ are the best tasting ones we have. If I ever try some I will be sure to let you know. Martin is still finding the goods and not limiting himself to just chants, he regularly posts photos of his finds on Australian wild Mushroom Hunters.

 

 

 

Yellow Chanterelles

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Yellow Chanterelles, Cantharellus viscosus

Yellow Chanterelles, Cantharellus viscosus

I have been on the hunt for Local Australian Chanterelles for a long while now without a great deal of success. Today I was walking round a park on the edge of a patch of native forest near the coast when I looked down and saw a tiny dry yellow mushroom, I was about to walk on when I decided I’d better check so I bent down and discovered dried out chanterelle! I searched the area without finding any more so I started to follow a bit of a track into the bush and finally found a ring of these illusive yellow chants. They were growing in clay soil on a flood plan of a coastal creek under some Lomandra with large brushbox, paper barks and casurinas growing over head. Cantharellus sp. are a mycorrhizal mushroom that form a relationship with a host tree. It seems that some Australian chants are not very fussy about the tree species. I have also seen these yellow chants growing with Black Butt and Flooded gum further north.

Australian Yellow Chanterelles, Cantharellus viscosus

Australian Yellow Chanterelles, Cantharellus viscosus

QMS calls a similar looking species Cantharellus viscosus Im not sure how they came to that conclusion but in the absence of any other reference I cant really come to a better name for these chanterelles. Australia has a lot of different chants and I’m not sure how much taxonomy has been done on them. This paper seems to suggest that much more work is needed. I will probably send away a sample for DNA sequencing but I doubt it will shed much light on this species. This species is uncommon locally but is more widespread to our north. They are eaten by some of the people who know about them. I fried some up in butter and found the texture good and the flavour mild but good. The smell of these mushrooms raw is slightly apricoty but not as strong as Cantharellus concinnus The apricot chanterelle.

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A chanterelle lookalike probably Multifurca stenophylla

I thought I would update this post with the above photo of a multifurcia sp. my partner found the other day. It was growing in some remnant coastal woodland in the roots of a big old black butt. Less then four meters away were some c. viscosus. At first I was sure this was a cantharellus sp. but I soon noticed that the gills were producing a white latex like some lactarius species do. The smell was also wrong for a chant. I was stumped but thankfully the facebook mushroom community was able to help with an ID. I don’t know if this species is poisonous but the latex is described as acrid so I don’t think I would want to try them, still the false gills are very similar to cantharellus so its certainly possible to mistake the two. Multifurca is closely related to lactarius and russula, its a rare and probably ancient species. The two links above have some more photos and info.

Agaricus section Bitorques

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Australian Agaricus section Bitorques

Agaricus section Bitorques? Note the cobwebby veil.

I’ve now found this interesting squat Australian agaricus in two locations and I’ve also got the above collection sequenced. The results came back as 98.55% match for an Agaricus sp. (JF797187) That was sequenced by a couple of Frenchmen but looks like it also came from Australia. I’m no expert but to my mind 98.5 is not close enough to be a match for this species buts its also close enough to be possible. Looking at Mushroaming I see that Jsun has found a similar looking agaricus in Tassie, see “Agaricus Field Tasmania” about a third of the way down the post. So if this is a wide spread mushroom in Australia then I guess it would be fair the expect some variation in genetics.

Australian Agaricus section Bitorques

Agaricus section Bitorques in situ, growing in compacted soil next to a road near the coast.

This agaricus has brown scales on the cap similar to a Swiss brown mushroom, it also has the same dense flesh, without any noticeable staining and a pleasant mushroomy smell. It looks very much like agaricus bitorquis but differs with a cobwebby veil similar to cortinarius. It also lacks the double ring of bitorquis. It does have a sheathlike upwards facing ring which fits with section bitorques. The second collection I’ve found was growing under large paperbark’s in grass near the coast, see below.

Australian Agaricus section Bitorques

Agaricus section Bitorques in situ, growing under paperbarks.

I have cooked up and eaten a small amount of this mushroom, it tasted very nice. Most sections of agaricus are non toxic with the exception of section xanthodermati also some of our native agaricus are probably poisonous with yellow staining and an unpleasant smell.