Lurt: I'm not sure whether this fungus is identifiable. I'm confused, anyway.
Today's mushroom was found a couple of days ago in a depression that represents the remains of a 4 ft diameter poplar stump.
In November of 2007 there was a heavy fruiting of Pholiota squarrose and 2 different small mushrooms on this stump.
In February of 2009 there was a very large clump of Pleurotus fruiting on the stump.
In July of 2009 there were waves of the myxomycete Fuligo septica coming out of the cracks in the stump
And now this, (April 2013) - the stump is gone and there is a very soft depression where the stump once stood.
This was the first that i noticed, the cap is 4 inches in diameter and dried out:
Several days later, another of the same type (probably) appeared. It probably doesn't have a veil ring on the stem but as you can see, the slugs were there before me
The maximum cap width reached almost 8 inches and the splitting occurred before we started getting sun on the cap.
Oh, as you can see, the gills are definitely closely spaced. Paging through the book of gills revealed many more maggots. Several days after this picture, all that there was was brown crumbs and more maggots. I think that thye must have eaten all the spores too, because I never saw any
Finally, an up-close image of one of the best preserved gill edge sections
Sava: Thanks for posting this puzzle/story.
Could it be a Pluteus? Do you remember or can you still check if the gills are free? If some of those gills are still there and if you could dry a couple, then we'd be able to see the spores and cystidia (if any).
Dick:I would agree. The third picture looks a lot like a Pluteus and the deep gills further the impression
Do offer some comments: Message will go to Elmer
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