Mushroom Monday

St. Patrick's Day Edition and a quick trip to Boston's Chinatown

Good evening, friends, and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

We’re going to deviate from the typical single species profile and lean into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. All of the fanfare and festivities made me think of how green is an uncommon color in mushrooms and I got curious about how many green mushrooms exist.

I went on a personal foray through my own mushroom pictures to see how many green mushrooms I’ve found, and surprisingly I turned up more than I anticipated (I anticipated two). Also, I did a little research and created a bucket list of green mushrooms that I’d like to find at some point down the road. Let’s take a look:

Kiwi Bubbles or Beech Kiwis (Diatrype virescens)

We learned about these mushrooms just a couple months ago. A little green mushroom you can find in the winter, quite unusual. Those black holes are the ostioles where the spores are shot out.

Green Waxy Cap (Hygrocybe viridiphylla)

Far and away the most uncommon of the bunch with only a handful of observations documented online between iNaturalist and MushroomObserver. We found this mushroom last March at Finca Heimatlos in the Pastaza Province of Ecuador, and the species is only known to exist in the tropics. A mirror was used to get a picture of the gills without having to pick the mushroom.

Green Russula (Russula crustosa or Russula parvovirescens)

Perhaps the most attractive brittlegill (Russula) which are common summer mushrooms in eastern North America. An edible mushroom was found in Nimham Mountain Multiple Use Area, Carmel, NY in July, 2023.

Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus)

We’re straying a bit from the green as this predominantly orange (or saffron) colored edible mushroom features green tinges and streaks on the cap and stipe. Found in the Adirondacks last August.

Emerald Elf Cups (Chlorciboria spp.)

Always a fun find, these were from Telluride, CO back in August, 2021. Not only is the mushroom a blue-green, but the mycelium stains the whole wood that color. Chlorociboria wood has been used in art for centuries with an example in this 15th century piece at the Met.

Green-spored parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites)

Found in Central Park back in August of 2021, these large mushrooms are all white except for their gills which turn a light green because the spores are green. A mushroom you’ll commonly find in grassy areas and parks, it’s important to know because it’s a toxic look-a-like of the edible parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera).

Chicken Lips (Leotia viscosa)

I’ve only seen these mushrooms once, and it was back in July of 2021 while hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with my buddy Phil. A great common name on this gelatinous ascomycete. Originally thought to be decomposers, it’s understood that Leotia are actually ectomycorrhizal (wrap around plant roots and exchange nutrients with the plant).

Green Mushroom Bucket List:

Lime-Green Waxy Cap (Hygrocybe virescens)

This green waxy cap, similar in appearance to the one from Ecuador, is found growing in western North America (Washington down into Mexico) and grows in association with conifers, particularly redwoods. This photo was taken by Alan Rockefeller in Sonoma County, CA in 2019, and accessed through mushroomobserver.org

Green Skinhead (Cortinarius austrovenetus)

This green mushroom is known only from Australia and New Zealand where the fungus grows mycorrhizally in eucalypt forests (forests dominated gum trees, they comprise more than 3/4 of Australian forests). This photo was taken by Rytas Vilgalys in Tasmania in 2019 and accessed through iNaturalist.

Verdigris Waxcap (Gliophorus viridis)

This mushroom is from New Zealand — I guess for green mushrooms you’ve gotta go down under. Photo is from Steve Reekie and accessed through iNaturalist.

BMC in Boston’s Chinatown

This past Saturday I went to the Boston Mycological Club’s banquet to meet some mushroom folks in the Boston area. The event started with a scavenger hunt around the markets in Chinatown and though my team didn’t win (shoutout to Pat and Steve), we found a respectable five. Thanks to the BMC for putting on a great event, here are some of the products we found:

Dried morels

Chocorooms. A fun little chocolate dressed up like a mushroom (no mushrooms are actually in the candy, probably for the best).

Bamboo fungus (dried stinkhorns, Phallus indusiatus)

Similarly, Andrew Cannon of the New York Mycological Society (@fungus_fairy on instagram) actually put together a comprehensive list of all the mushroom products you can find across all the different cultural markets in NYC. You can explore that list here.

Finally got some good rain for all the spring amphibians and fungi. Spring Equinox on Thursday too,

Aubrey

References:

1. https://mushroomobserver.org/364422?q=20ogY

2. https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/australias-forests/profiles/eucalypt-2019

3. Tedersoo, Leho and Matthew E. Smith. “Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Lineages: Detection of Four New Groups and Notes on Consistent Recognition of Ectomycorrhizal Taxa in High-Throughput Sequencing Studies.” (2017). https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56363-3_6

4. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46436484

5. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/25771845