WA Gyms, tis the season

[Mycot]

Crazy! Nice finds.... The gym interest is going beserk this year!

 

Wow. Amazing pics guys. Besides looking so great we're finding some pretty beserk gyms.

Yours for example are handsomely large and are quite different from Wassonova's in appearance.

So much so that one can say with some confidence that this is a unique find and a separate species from G.purpuratus. As such a print and/or dried fruitbody should be preserved.

I recently found some gyms that I initially thought may be G.purpuratus but later decided were a separate gym species. These were found in NSW and although bluing was not observed the stems had a slight greeny tinge which went quite blackish after a few hours probably from initial handling.

Apologize for the poor quality of the pics which were shot under artificial(bad) light cinditions.

With luck I may be able to find more and get better pics.

(We still need cutaway pics of G.purpuratus as in my last shot as a further identification aid)

Edited July 2, 2011 by Mycot

[Hyphal]

Specimen kept and print to undergo microscopy soon!

Oh and bioassay of 1.8g dry produced only very mild effects. The dose was split into 1g and 0.8g and was administered 40 minutes apart.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Hyphal

[Mycot]

i am not certain that their purported properties will remain after drying, so if anybody can attest to this, or share their experience of bioassay of dried specimens, i'm sure we'd be interested to hear.

this photo series shows the spore prints of suspected G. purpuratus

 

I'm quite certain that your gyms are G.purpuratus Wassonova. Really amazing photography.

Properly dried and properly stored gyms are active and will retain their properties.

[Mycot]

Specimen kept and print to undergo microscopy soon!

Oh and bioassay of 1.8g dry produced only very mild effects. The dose was split into 1g and 0.8g and was administered 40 minutes apart.

 

For gyms I would call that an impressive result for 1.8g

Much more often than not a gym assay should ideally be done in the 10g region to determine activity.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Mycot

[Vort]

I've been looking around the same sort of area, swamp/bushland, just south of Perth.

I found some a couple of weeks ago that I posted on shroomery here.

And I found some more this weekend:

.

They didn't go blue at all.

One of em, the one I found solo on a log, went very dark when, and left a blue/watery stain when I took the spore print.

The biggest one was 7cm across.

They all had a yellow stem, yellow gills, and a rusty orange spore print.

The caps were either yellowish (found on top of the log) or deep purple (found on the underside) sheltered from the sun part of the log.

Any ideas on what there are?

They had some subtle colour differences to the ones in the shroomery post.

[Idiot]

Well done Vort

Never seen Gym.P growing on these logs and it makes me much happier now to see them in new spots.

[sidewayschef]

Interesting to see in some of the pictures a white veil over the mushroom.

I havent seen that before.....

is interesting to see how this species will occupy a log, similair to Shitake.

I took all the stem butt's and spread them in an area of hardwood(Jarrah, Eucalptys) chips

Will be interesting to see how hardy and well this variety spreads

[Mycot]

Great first post Vort and an excellent series of very educational pics. Welcome to the corroboree.

All your gyms including the ones in the shroomery post are G.purpuratus. Bluing in active gym species is often only observed in a certain percentage of individuals and they are still active even when this trait is not observed.

As you have noted there is a certain amount of variation in the appearance of G.purpuratus. Here is what B.J.Rees has to say on the matter.

"It can be quite variable in colour, ranging from uniform, dull vinaceous-purple to delicate salmon-pink with small patches of teal to aqua-blue colour in the pileus surface. Collections from South and Western Australia tend to be larger and more maroon-red in colour. Depending on age and degree of hydration, these colours can fade to light ochre, with or without purple lingering on in the tips of the scales. Although the type is described as having no velar remains, NSW collections have been seen with remnants of a white fibrillose, fugacious, annulus high up on the stipe in young specimens. Context may be yellow to purple."

This being the case, while one is gaining experience in identification gyms should be closely observed and examined including cutting it down the center, stem and all and noting all the characteristics. Certain things will remain constant such as spore print colour. In this there may be some variation in shade due to hydration but not in colour. Gill colour is another, with any variation due to the age of the specimens. When one encounters a separate species there is often something that screams out this fact in the examination and sometimes that screaming comes from gut instinct which is usually correct. When a separate species(possibly new and undescribed) is encountered it may still be active especially if it shares characteristics in common with known active species. Two such charateristics are red-purple colours at any stage of development and erect squamules on the cap.

As a further aid to identification of G.purpuratus I'm posting here a number of links showing pics of this species. All are from WA except the very last two links posted.

First off, three from the corroboree here.

Perth 2011

Gymnopilus ID WA

In the following link Kramer's pics are G.purpuratus while Fredf's pics are something other.

Id? possible Gymnopilus

Two pics of interest in the first link, a striking pic in the second.

Murdoch Environmental Restoration Group

Steve Axford Photography

A few from Flickr with some misnaming.

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

Tony B Photography again with misnaming.

Image 1 Image 2

One from Mt Barker, SA.

http://mushroomobserver.org/70077?q=5JZU

Eastern populations which are different from more western populations, this one from VIC.

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/10325518/fpart/all/vc/1

Edited July 7, 2011 by Mycot

[Mycot]

Of high value to hunters, two quotes from Bush Turkey(thanks ) from another thread here.

just look for Malalueca woodland. I can pretty much gurantee that you will find some. Every Malalueca woodland ive been to has had Gym's.

 

oh they are there. takes a while for your eyes to peel. I walked over the same spot 4 times and on my way back the fifth time i found a little patch of 3 in the same spot

 

Edited July 7, 2011 by Mycot

[eLwAd]

found these in the local paperbarks next to the lake last weekend, fairly sure they are g. purp. are there any species in wa whch are even close in physical appearance to g. purp? if so are they inedible? noted that they always grow in semi open bushland and not in the really dense and shaded paperbarks close to the lake edge, even though there are a lot of rotten logs in there. none showed signs of bluing and none went sloppy like gym. a which someone suggested earlier, though in perth urban fungi gym. a looks totally different so wouldn't have thought that i would have picked those.

resized

Edited July 8, 2011 by eLwAd

[Hyphal]

Looks very promising to me, please re-size your pics before posting them next time - Easy Picture Resizer

[Vort]

Nice!

When I look in the same kind of area there are lots of yellow ones like in the top of your location pic.

I'd call these yellow ones Gymnopilus allantopus, or as the perth urban fungi reports call them: Golden Wood Fungus.

The purple ones look like Gymnopilus purpuratus.

[Idiot]

are there any species in wa whch are even close in physical appearance to g. purp? if so are they inedible? ...

 

By looking at the 4th photo you can see that some of your mushrooms have brighter gills (like the color of inside of an apple). they will be your best friends from now on.

Stay away from orange gills because they are either:

1-Gym.A or any other name you want to call them and they are not active

2-there is a chance that is it deadly galerina (over 300 species of galerina are out there)

Deadly Galerina:

BTW thank you so much for cutting the mushrooms carefully, they will reward you for your good behavior in August.

If you find a new environment that you think it is similar to the spot that you find them leave a small bit of the cap in the woods to see if we can help these species survive the big number of hunters we have outside.

Good luck

Edited July 9, 2011 by Idiot

[wassonova]

By looking at the 4th photo you can see that some of your mushrooms have brighter gills (like the color of inside of an apple). they will be your best friends from now on.

Stay away from orange gills because they are either:

1-Gym.A or any other name you want to call them and they are not active

2-there is a chance that is it deadly galerina (over 300 species of galerina are out there)

Deadly Galerina:

 

Idiot, you are right to caution about Galerinas - reading about this species over the years has caused me a few uncertain moments. With regard to your refernece to eLwAds photograph #4 and the different coloured gills, I have wondered if the gills haven't ended up a darker colour not because they are a different shroom but because they are some days older and the spores are colouring the gills? if you look at the ones with the more waxy yellow coloured gills, you will see some darker, cinnamon-coloured patches on them, which i think comes from the spores... however, it is wisest to exercise caution and do-away with ones that appear different to the kinds we have seen in this thread. one way of getting rid of them would be to go place them on some fallen paperbarks or banksia and see what springs up in that place the following year??

[Mycot]

The caution regarding galerinas is well made. I do however concur with Wassonova that in this case the difference in gill colour is likely due to the different ages of the specimens rather than being a different species. Close examination of all of the characteristics of the shroom generally suffices to clearly separate gyms from galerinas.

One is not to gamble if they are not 100% sure they have gyms.

[occidentalis]

A few from Flickr with some misnaming.

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

 

Mycot, these are my photos - can you please give me some more info regarding what you think is the misID and why?

i am trying to improve my Gymnopilus ID skills.

cheers

[Mycot]

Let me congratulate you on a very beautiful set of images Occidentalis.

Where the first two images are only named to genus, the third is misnamed as G.purpurea, a name that does not exist as a valid name. All three of these images are of G.purpuratus and very beautiful specimens at that.

Tony B Photography similarly uses invalid names for G.purpuratus.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Mycot

[Bush Turkey]

Just some pics from a hunt today

Amanita xanthocephala

Gymnopilus sp.

Gymnopilus purpuratus

[occidentalis]

Let me congratulate you on a very beautiful set of images Occidentalis.

Where the first two images are only named to genus, the third is misnamed as G.purpurea, a name that does not exist as a valid name. All three of these images are of G.purpuratus and very beautiful specimens at that.

Tony B Photography similarly uses invalid names for G.purpuratus.

 

thanks mate

i have been out hunting a fair bit lately and have plenty of photos of Gyms and many other taxa to share.

So you reckon I'm getting the ID right, just had the name wrong?

what do you think of this one? I had previously called it G. purpuratus but after seeing some other mushrooms with more obvious purple caps and paler stems, I am thinking this might be G. allantopus or something else.

[Bush Turkey]

i have been out hunting a fair bit lately and have plenty of photos of Gyms and many other taxa to share.

 

ooooo i would love to see them. When will you be sharing?

[occidentalis]

well, since we're all in the mood, here's a few Gyms to get us started

Big orange one

Another big orange one

Some purple ones coming out of a log

More little purple ones poking their heads out. There seems to be two distinct colours in this spot - not sure if this corresponds to G. purpuratus and G. allantopus or just different types of G. purpuratus

And some cute little Mycenas

[Mycot]

So you reckon I'm getting the ID right, just had the name wrong?

 

Correct, all three images are G.purpuratus as are the purple ones in your most recent post. Can only see one colour in the forth pic of that post. G.purpuratus would have red to purple heads at the button stage of development.

what do you think of this one? I had previously called it G. purpuratus but after seeing some other mushrooms with more obvious purple caps and paler stems, I am thinking this might be G. allantopus or something else.

 

This one is neither G. purpuratus nor G. allantopus. We have many orange colored gym species and identifying them down to species can be difficult. My guess is that this is G.ferruginosus as the description given by B.J.Rees appears to match. http://www.australasianmycology.com/pages/pdf/20/1/29.pdf

[occidentalis]

Can only see one colour in the forth pic of that post. G.purpuratus would have red to purple heads at the button stage of development.

The two colours I was referring to were in the general area, not in that photo - ie the orange and purple ones that I posted.

This one is neither G. purpuratus nor G. allantopus. We have many orange colored gym species and identifying them down to species can be difficult. My guess is that this is G.ferruginosus as the description given by B.J.Rees appears to match. http://www.australasianmycology.com/pages/pdf/20/1/29.pdf

 

Thanks a lot for the article, I will have a read...got anymore Gym taxonomy papers?

[Mycot]

Thanks a lot for the article, I will have a read...got anymore Gym taxonomy papers?

 

There's a lot of gym taxonomy papers. A good place for starting research into Australian fungi is the Interactive Catalogue of Australian Fungi from the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

The major authors of Australian gym taxonomy are B.J.Rees many of who's papers are online and C.A.Grgurinovic with her 1997 book "Larger Fungi of South Australia".

On the international level the major author on gyms is L.Guzmán-Dávalos the daughter of G.Guzmán.

Many of her papers on gyms can be found on the Cyberliber site. Type in Guzman in "Search Authors" on the site to find a list of her papers.

One thing that should be kept in mind is that only a small percentage of Australia's fungi including gyms have been described.

Edited July 15, 2011 by Mycot

[wahunter]

Hi Guys, Just wanted to inform of my recent consumption of Gym.P. First time was 7g dried produced mild effects,relaxing and euphoric. 2nd time was 20g dried blended and drunk with fanta, similar to first time. 3rd was 200g of freshly picked mushrooms blended and mixed with coke and shared between 3 people. Much more noticeable effects, oev/cev. Excellent in the dark. All mushrooms were picked in suburban areas near swampland. Severe bluing in most picked. Apologies for no pics will post next time round.