Fabulous fungi

[Stephenb]

The second one are edible. Это осенние опята. But it is not good to have this kind of mushrooms in the garden. They kill trees. And not only trees! I saw them on peony and Polystichum setiferum which dead next year.

Это осенние опята (I did Russian at school  ) is I think Honey Fungus, Armillaria mellea, which Hans just posted a picture of...

When I first moved here I felled a lot of Birch trees and left the stumps which quickly became infested with Это осенние опята. I had learnt that this species was edible and was very pleased with this unexpected crop of tasty mushrooms. I wish now that I had known of the aggressive nature of this fungus (at least certain strains of it) as is invaded gradually over the next years my fruit orchard and killed after about 10 years all my old apple and plum trees (as Olga says). The last few years, I've had a big job systematically digging over the ground and removing all tree roots before replanting...

I don't eat it any more - and people are here warned against it as some people are very allergic to it. However, it is still one of the commonest wild fungi sold on markets in Italy.

[Hans J]

here are some more pics ( from last year )

complete collection
Birkenpilz ( Leccinum scabrum )
Steinpilz ( Boletus edulis )
Marone ( Xerocomus badius )
Totentrompete ( Craterellus cornicopuoides )

[Lesley Cox]

Mark mentioned the little flies that infest mushrooms and other fungi. I have found that these, if shaken from the mushroom onto the late summer/autumn leaves of Pinguicula species, before those leaves die away, make for a very strong and prolific flowering of the Pinguiculas in spring.

We have the red and white spotted Amanita muscaria, under our pines and eucalypts in the autumn. It also grows around the bushy parts of the city of Dunedin and most years a few cases of poisoning are treated in the local hospital, when uni students have sampled it.

[Olga Bondareva]

Hi Thomas!
Yes my interest has progressed.

Hans
Good harvest! The last one is unknown to me. I'v never saw and eaten such kind if fungi.

Stephen
What a sad story about your garden! I have a little осенние опята in my garden on old logs of old home. Do you think I have to throw them away or burn down? Or is it enough to saturate them with fungicide? 

[Hans J]

Olga ,

these 'Trompets de Mort' are also rare here - you find it always in a short time -late in fall before comes the frost .
They a fine fungi for spice -not for eating it pure .We dry it and add it for sauces -special good for wild animals like Chevreul ,Sanglier......
In this year we had not found any - and the season is soon over -the wether forecast says frost for the next days 

[Rogan]

Of course Armillariella mellea, the bootlace fungus is famous for another reason - phosphorescent hyphae...   

[Stephenb]

Olga ,

these 'Trompets de Mort' are also rare here - you find it always in a short time -late in fall before comes the frost .
They a fine fungi for spice -not for eating it pure .We dry it and add it for sauces -special good for wild animals like Chevreul ,Sanglier......
In this year we had not found any - and the season is soon over -the wether forecast says frost for the next days 

I don't think I will be eating these "Death Trumpets" soon and I won't be accepting a dinner invitation from Hans either  I've never seen them here (they are local, mostly in the south of Norway). We call them  Svart trompetsopp (Craterellus cornucopioides).

[Stephenb]

Stephen
What a sad story about your garden! I have a little осенние опята in my garden on old logs of old home. Do you think I have to throw them away or burn down? Or is it enough to saturate them with fungicide? 

I would advise you to burn them. Here in Norway (probably also EU), there is no fungicide which can be used against Honey Fungus (at least for private gardeners). The only solution is to remove the tree roots which are affected.   

[Hans J]

here is a other fungi from this time -they start now

thats are Trompetenpfifferlinge ( Cantherellus tubaeformis )
they are more common ....but the taste is not so exquisit like C. cibariucus

[Paul T]

We have Armillaria native in our local area here too.  The hill that the Botanic Gardens are on here in Canberr has it native to it, and it pops up in areas of the Gardens regularly.  Large areas are now devoid of trees and nothing can be done about it unfortunately as impossible to remove all the dead tree roots.  They just have to try to minimise it's spread, in some cases by "Armillaria barriers" which entailed digging a 2 metre trench and filling it with concrete.  This stops the roots from nearby trees penetrating past that point, so the fungus can't spread into the rockery area with all it's rare plants.    Nasty stuff, and when the mushrooms appear in autumn we would try to hunt them down and remove them to minimise spore production.

[Olga Bondareva]

I would advise you to burn them. Here in Norway (probably also EU), there is no fungicide which can be used against Honey Fungus (at least for private gardeners). The only solution is to remove the tree roots which are affected.   

Thank you Stephen!
The problem is many small and big peaces of old wood are buried into soil. It’s impossible to remove all of them.
I think about system fungicide. 

[Olga Bondareva]

Today was foggy morning






All this fungi are  growing at my plum tree. It means the tree is old and diseased.

[Stephenb]

I'm lucky that I don't have more than 20-30 cm of soil anywhere in my garden over rock. Therefore, it is possible to remove roots, although it's still a big job (=several years). The only solution seems then to be a barrier such as described by Paul. I have read that there are no effective chemicals against Armillaria...

[mark smyth]

You have a great eye. Next time you photograph fungi can you put your finger in so we can see how small some of your fungi is.

[ian mcenery]

Olga this thread has only just come up on my radar - absolutely wonderful photos of most unusual subjects

Thank you