Hunting for Armillaria

This morning I went on a hunt for Armillaria (Honey Mushroom) with Kate St. John. I had contacted her about such a hunt after reading her blog post “What Made This Tree Fall?” I was curious if we could maybe map locations of Armillaria and make some sort of connection with the oak trees that are coming down in the parks (there do seem to be a lot of oaks coming down these days). Spoiler alert: it was a good day for fungi, but little Armillaria was found.

Now, I did find Armillaria before I even got to the park. This was Armillaria tabescens, the Ringless Honey Mushroom, and was growing in a lawn on the corner of Beacon and Wightman. We’d had a solid rain (torrential, actually) the day before, and they had popped up perhaps that day or earlier — I had seen them on the dog walk that evening. I snapped another picture of these on my way to the park, thinking it was a sign this was going to be a good day for Honey Mushrooms.

These were not the species we were hunting today, though. The Armillaria we were hunting this morning was Armillaria mellea, the Honey Mushroom, a wood rotting parasite of deciduous trees, oak trees in particular. After pausing to observe some mantids in the park, and chat with a woman and her daughter releasing monarchs in the park, Kate took me to the tree in her blog post which showed the Armillaria damage and mycelium. No honey mushrooms were to be found around that tree, however! Per the above link on the Ringless Honey Mushroom, we may have to wait a couple weeks to see them sprout out of the ground.

It was fungi galore from there, though. Everwhere we turned was something different, and the folks carrying their kids and chairs through the park to some event must have thought we were nuts, pointing our phones at the base of trees and dead wood on the ground. What were all of these mushrooms? We didn’t know. I had an idea of some of them from previous field trips, but mostly I didn’t know. I was, however, able to identify, thanks to Adam Haritan’s video, the best fungus of the day, Hen of the Woods! Not harvested — even if I had been interested in eating it, you’re not allowed to harvest from the city parks, I was told. It was nice to find and identify at least one well known mushroom.

I’ve posted our findings here on iNat, and if anyone can help identify things specifically, it’s much appreciated. For more info on identifying Armillaria and Hen of the Woods, I recommend Adam Haritan’s videos:

• Honey Mushroom & Deadly Galerina - Identification and Differences
• Mushroom Hunting Hens & Honeys
• 7 Trees Every Mushroom Hunter Should Know

Enjoy.

Posted on October 7, 2018 11:56 PM by sttpgh