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Zen Peddler

local agaricus expert?

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I think you'll need microscopy to sort them out. They are tough. I really battled last year (or maybe it was the year before). No real learning to pass on either sadly.

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200 Agaricus in Australia, holy crap, that's mind blowing.

how many are these are edible? or how many of these, people call horse or field mushroom?

I can remember some 40 years ago as a young boy picking Agaricus mushrooms for the Footscray market.

we had all the locals into it. I can never forget the aroma of the shed we packed in.

this was the south west Victoria, these mushrooms were famous back then in the market.

it all ended when mushroom farmers, who put the fear and dangers of picking wild mushrooms to, who ever

regulated these things? back then.

in the peek of the season we would send 300-400 cases 2 to 3 times a week. them were the good old days.

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I think there are at most 5-10 inedible (mildly toxic) Agaricus species in the entire world. Could be a bit more or less, depending what you'd consider a true species.

Doubtful that all of those 200 are valid species, but still, Agaricus is a very waried genus. Most of the species can be told apart by subtle macroscopis differences and growing habits. Unfortunately I'm not at all familiar with Australian mushrooms, so can't help you there.

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Cool Tangint - in that case you might happen to know an agaricus that grows in the Dandenongs that by all appearances looks like the Prince (agaricus augustus), stains yellow and sometimes a little red even, smells like almonds but is WAY smaller than augustus. Growing under pinus radiata, birch and eucalypt? I have photos if this will help?

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Very interesting mushroom!

The closest two European species I know of are A. bohusii and A. perrarus, the former staining mostly red and latter mostly yellow.

A. moelleri is one toxic species that looks somewhat similar, but if these smell like almonds, then they are almost definitely edible.

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This is the same mushroom after a few days - note the yellow staining on the cap, orange/yellow staining on hollow stem after cutting - the veil visible in the pics above has disappeared with age:

post-3828-0-39283100-1398493079_thumb.jppost-3828-0-74755400-1398493088_thumb.jppost-3828-0-08661200-1398493094_thumb.jppost-3828-0-04277300-1398493098_thumb.jppost-3828-0-96486200-1398493103_thumb.jp

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Was that under a fairly open canopy on grasses Zen?

A.arvensis?? I've seen references to almond smell...but I've only had the anise odour from any I have ID'd that direction.

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Nah, it looks nothing like A. arvensis. It is definitely in the augustus group, likely that today it's considered just a variant of that species. It bears an extreme likeness to A. perrarus, so it's either been introduced to Australia from Europe, or is a very closely related native species.

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I am finding arvensis in Tassie to be very variable (no almond smell as some mention though), I was always under the opinion that augustus was a biggun.

lol...agaricus are interesting ones to find thats for sure

EDIT - by chance is there any reliable chem tests to differentiate across the Agaricus if anyone knows?

Edited by waterboy
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My friend tells me its Agaricus langei - as does a stranger on another forum. Superb smelling mushroom.

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That ID is very unlikely to be correct. A. langei bruises a strong red colour when cut, no yellow at all, and grows only in Europe (not to say it couldn't have been introduced). Smell isn't a determining characteristics, almost all wood digesting Agaricus produce that almond-like smell.

You can try posting it on Mushroom observer.

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Hi Tangich. I wasn't aware until this afternoon that there are nine herbarium type specimens of Agaricus langei from the hills to the east of Melbourne, Australia in the very geographical region of this mushroom. There was some orange staining but are your certain langei stains very red? Lastly the person that ID'd this mushroom was langei suggested that its bulbous, swollen base and reddish tinge on the stipe were defining characteristics of langei.

I'm nit 100% ofcourse but this is what I was told today.

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Yes, the real European Agaricus langei stains a vivid blood red colour when cut, which then fades slightly after a while. It's not impossible that the Australian collections were misidentified.

Agaricus perrarus also has a slightly bulbous base, redish tinge on the stipe, smells like almonds and bruises yellow when cut.

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here is the stem - quite hollow as you can see and dried out a little but red is clear where it was cut last night after 12 hours:

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It isn't actually, that is more orange-brown, the colour that yellow Agaricus bruising usually turns to after a day or so of drying. Only the outside of the stipe is reddish.

Here is what the red bruising of Agaricus langei looks like:

http://www.actafungorum.org/actaforum/download/file.php?id=4554&t=1 (cant insert that one as an image for some reason)

psalliotalangei.jpg

Edited by Tangich
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Oh right. I see your point. MMM... I think ill send it in to the Royal Botanical Gardens for a proper ID.

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