Mushrooms in the Garden!
On the natural history front we have been looking at some colorful mushrooms in the garden, at the bottom of the rose bush in a flower pot that have been growing in the 100+ Fahrenheit temperatures. We assume that it is some tropical species imbedded in the planting soil. We did a short search on the Internet and found plenty of mentions of just this mushroom known by the (rather wry) common name as the yellow houseplant mushroom because it is found in the potting soil of indoor houseplants and causes consternation in those that find them.
We have only made a tentative identification based on the visual configuration of the cap and stipe, please do not use this casual identification for entertainment purposes as a scientific certainty, since some of you may visit this blog via a search engine and may try and use this as a reference source, which this is not. We are just guessing. After all we are humble booksellers with a curiosity about the world of nature, not full-fledged professional mycologists. Accurate species identification includes both microscopic analysis and such things as supplemental supporting evidence using spore print colors, which we have not done. If we sell enough books we could build the dream laboratory with electron-scanning microscopes and microtomes, but that is up to you dear reader, you may hasten our dreams by clicking on any of the website links on this page.
That disclaimer aside, the presumed scientific names (probably because of the emerging importance of DNA research and restless mycologists who are unhappy with older names and invent newer ones) are: Lepiota lutea, Lepiota birnbaumii, Leucocoprinus luteus). Most sites use Lepiota birnbaumii as the current name. It is not edible, though whether is it is poisonous or just causes gastric upset is unclear. Of course, for most people, those are about the same, but the difference between simple gastric distress for a night and a liver transplant are of concern to physicians and patients alike.
But that is the exciting world of mycological identification. One must exercise caution since a trivial error in identification can have fatal consequences.
We have only made a tentative identification based on the visual configuration of the cap and stipe, please do not use this casual identification for entertainment purposes as a scientific certainty, since some of you may visit this blog via a search engine and may try and use this as a reference source, which this is not. We are just guessing. After all we are humble booksellers with a curiosity about the world of nature, not full-fledged professional mycologists. Accurate species identification includes both microscopic analysis and such things as supplemental supporting evidence using spore print colors, which we have not done. If we sell enough books we could build the dream laboratory with electron-scanning microscopes and microtomes, but that is up to you dear reader, you may hasten our dreams by clicking on any of the website links on this page.
That disclaimer aside, the presumed scientific names (probably because of the emerging importance of DNA research and restless mycologists who are unhappy with older names and invent newer ones) are: Lepiota lutea, Lepiota birnbaumii, Leucocoprinus luteus). Most sites use Lepiota birnbaumii as the current name. It is not edible, though whether is it is poisonous or just causes gastric upset is unclear. Of course, for most people, those are about the same, but the difference between simple gastric distress for a night and a liver transplant are of concern to physicians and patients alike.
But that is the exciting world of mycological identification. One must exercise caution since a trivial error in identification can have fatal consequences.
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