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Mycot

WA Gyms, tis the season

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Those WA hunters that are interested in active Aussie gyms could do worse than check out the Survey Reports on the Perth Urban Bushland Fungi website. Several of the reports and locations describe finds of Gymnopilus purpuratus and there are indications of that there may be undescribed active gyms in some of the reports.

So this is a bit of a heads up for WA hunters and a fervent hope that we may yet see some good pics of WA purpuratus or other interesting WA gyms. We really need more pics (and prints) of interesting Aussie gyms.

Enquries have indicated the thumbnail size photos in the reports are unavailable at a higher resolution.

Edited by Mycot

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yeah ive come across that website and searched alot of the survey reports and there are some funky lookin gyms in a few places... will be checking them out soon.

Edited by Bush Turkey

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thanks mycot, wow this is interesting, i never knew we got this species here.

Bush Turkey do the gyms grow in large amounts like subs and what suburb/town are we likely to find them in?

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yeah i have seen some big patches but usally you will only find them in bunches of 5 or so.

i have only ever seen green staining on 2 patches.

you will find them pretty much in any fungi friendly bushland most likely next to fallen logs that are rotting

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Ydarb, have a closer look at those reports. Quite a number of them describe finds of G.purpuratus or gyms that appear closely related.

Staining while an indicator that a gym is active, doesn't always appear in the active species so identification becomes more critical.

Regarding safety consensus indicates that no known species of gymnopilus is poisonous as such.

Those making smaller finds may be interested to know that gyms are easily cultivated with hardy resilient mycelium.

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they may not be poisonous, but they sound rather weak and not worth the effort. still it's interesting to note they grow here.

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I believe they are well worth the effort for the following reasons.

This was said not too many years ago about Panaeolus subbalteatus and now that species is very popular and considered to give a unique experience.

There's been way too little experimentation with Australian gyms to give any definitive statements in this respect.

Gartz's study of G.purpuratus shows reasonably good alkaloid levels.

There are a good number of very favorable overseas gym reports saying that the gym experience is unique and well worth pursuing.

In these a dosage of around 10g dry is generally recommended.

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i am interested mycot could you please link me to the ones where they founf gym. purp.

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In these a dosage of around 10g dry is generally recommended.

equivalent to which amount of say, psiloshrooms, say 3gr ? [dried]

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Ydarb, the survey reports are Pdf files and I know it is a bit of work to go through all of them but maybe worthwhile if you don't wish to miss anything. There is a good deal of valuable detailed information in the reports.

Hit the search button once you open up the pdf and type in gymnopilus. What you'll be looking for is Gymnopilus purpuratus, Gymnopilus cf.purpuratus and Gymnopilus sp.

The cf means confer, compare (with) and indicates either the same species or an undescribed closely related species. This is good news for those wishing to discover new interesting gym species.

I may have missed a few, but reports that list G.purpuratus and/or G.cf.purpuratus are as follows;

Acourt Road Bushland 2005

Brownman Swamp, Beeliar Regional Park 2006

Canning River Regional Park 2007

Greater Brixton Street Wetlands 2007

Lake Cooloongup, Rockingham Lakes Regional Park 2005

Lightning Swamp Bushland 2007

Modong Bushland, Jandakot Regional Park 2006

Modong Nature Reserve, Jandakot Regional Park 2007

Murdoch University Bushland 2007

North Lake Bushland 2005

North Lake Bushland 2006

Queens Park Bushland 2006

Star Swamp Bushland 2004

Whiteman Park Bushland June 2006

Whiteman Park Bushland July 2006

Yellagonga Regional Park 2006

As can be seen from the number of reports and good news for WA hunters, these interesting gyms are by no means uncommon.

Now that I've done a good deal of the homework we'll want to see some nice macro shots. :):drool2:

Edited by Mycot

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Hi all

A quick look at those locations I would think they are all in sand country. Is this the case or do we look further a field in the hills ect.

Cheers

Got

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A quick look at those locations I would think they are all in sand country. Is this the case or do we look further a field in the hills ect.

Have a look at those reports, they give very precise information.

Once a feel for the habitat is gained I'm sure many more locations will be found. :wink:

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Sorry Mycot

I only looked at your list and not any further.

Well Im off to read the reports and then a bush walk is in order.

Cheers

Got

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Good luck, :) where I am gyms often appear after rains.

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yeah dude that site is addictive! i must of read everything on that site!

some excellent info to be found if you have the patience!

i suggest going on hunts with PUBF... they just had one at mundaring but dont know when the reports will be public

Edited by Bush_Turkey

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went and checked out mondong but it has been burt in the last year or 2 and not much fungus at all!!!

but their is a cool native nursery across the road! :wink:

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how cool, reading in one of the reports about gyms (Murdoch 2007), found out that some may grow very near to me, it's been raining and now it's a nice sunny day... well it was a minute ago...

guess i better start learning how to take prints, if i have time today i will look otherwise it won't be 'till the weekend... :)

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Taking prints of shrooms is pretty easy. What you essentially do is lay an open cap down on a sheet of aluminium foil for about twelve hours. (longer wont hurt) While it's printing cover all this with a sheet of paper to stop foreign spores and bacteria from contaminating your print.

Gyms are often a little trickier to print because of a high water content so if care is not taken may end up a soggy mess.

With gyms you want to print them within a sealed container that also contains an open dish(a jar lid will do) of Damp-Rid to whisk away excess humidity.

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Hey guys I've been interested in psychedelic drugs for about four years now and have read much on the subject mainly from Erowid, The Shroomery and here. I have never tried mushrooms since no one I know is interested and before now I had no way of getting to balingup but nothing can stop me this season. I was very exited to find there may be some growing in Brixton street wetlands and went down there immediately after reading this thread. I found a few patches and took some photos but I have no idea how to identify them. I was hoping someone might be interested in coming along with me and sharing some of there knowledge. I will post pics if anyone is interested in seeing them, probly nothing special but I had fun hunting for them anyway.

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Raoulduke, there is no mention of psilocybe in the Brixton street wetlands survey report so I'm unsure what it is you've found.

If you wish to get an id on what you believe to be Subs, you may wish to start a thread in the Mycology identification forum here. On the other hand if you've taken pics of gyms do please post them here. Thanks.

Edited by Mycot

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G'day guys/gals

I've been using the information in this forum and I felt like I owe you all these photos.

I took them today in Perth, hope you enjoy them. :shroomer:

gallery_6259_258_146421.jpg

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Nice photos thanks :)

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thanks for the photos Idiot. i will add some photos of similar looking mushrooms, hoping they were the Gyms that Mycot first brought to our attention.

thanks to Mycot for pointing out the useful literature prepared by PUBF (and no thanks to Ydarb for not reading properly, wanting to be spoon fed and having a goon bag as an avatar).

before i show some photos, just want to comment on the write-up that Stamets (in Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World) gives of Gymnopilus purpuratus, and compare the photograph to those shown in the PUBF reports. Stamets describes the stem of this shroom as being "yellowish brown overall, with greenish and yellowish overtones"; the accompanying photo shows a stem that looks yellowish-red/brown to me, with a blue/gray tinge at the base. The G.purp. shown in the PUBF reports look to have stems of a lighter colour than that shown in the Stamets book, yet are labelled as purpuratus nonetheless.

out fossicking today, i have taken photographs that look to be of the same species as those photographed by Idiot. i'm taking spore prints as we speak.

more on this shroom from Stamets:

"Cap: 1-5cm broad. Cap convex at first with an incurved margin, expanding with age to broadly convex to plane. reddish purplish brown to purplish red with tinges of yellow and green. surface covered with scattered fibrillose/floccose patches. Gills: Attachment sinuate, waxy yellow, becoming a brownish cinnamon yellow with spore maturity."

This photo looks similar to one labelled as G. Purp. in the PUBF North Lake report as "16 Gymnopilus cf. purpuratus" with "species ID 2462".

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Could these be G. purp. pins? Cute.

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Purps on a log?

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as above, aerial view

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Colourful stuff. there may be G. allopantus and G. purpuratus side by side here? or something else entirely?

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i like this photo.

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and, what are we looking at here? Galerina?

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any help identifying these shrooms would be appreciated. it'd be good to hear from Mycot about now, seeing as s/he started the whole thing...

apologies if photos are small, these are the first i have posted and just getting the hang of it.

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post-4701-1247583181_thumb.jpg

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post-4701-1247583304_thumb.jpg

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post-4701-1247585131_thumb.jpg

post-4701-1247585155_thumb.jpg

post-4701-1247585188_thumb.jpg

Edited by wassonova

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apologies, photos of suspected "pins" above are not pins. i went and looked at them again today to see how much they had grown and they hadn't. i touched them and found that they moved. they were seeds of some sort. silly me. i had thought of them yesterday as little friends of mine that i could come back and visit. i'll leave the photo there because i think it looks good anyway.

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