We were out at the land this weekend and Emily happened upon this huge mushroom! I do not think I have ever seen a mushroom this big before. I have seen shelf mushrooms on trees and hen-of-the-woods before, but of traditionally shaped mushrooms, I do not think I have ever seen one bigger!
I looked through my mushroom books and nothing caught my eye so I do not know what sort of mushroom this is. Does anyone else know? It had seen better days but I loved the little triangular ridges with the yellow triangles inside. It looked sort of pretty which I know is sort of strange to say about fungus. I don’t know about you, but I am continually amazed at the diversity of life that I have in my little corner of the world. Simply amazing!
Edit: I think this is a Calvatia cyathiformis
That’s a big mother shut your mouth mushroom!!!
Did you find out if it was poisonous?
That is the very rare Mountain Doo mushroom. You must have discovered it in an area where a certain breed of bald headed bear did his thing in the woods. The yellow triangles are residue of this particular bears dietary habits of consuming mass quantities of yellow die #3 in it’s favorite beverage. Caution: it is highly toxic.
Capri K – I am fairly sure it is a non-edible variety but I do not know for sure what it is.
GW – I would expect a lot more mushrooms then…that bear does his thing…everywhere!
I’m a little dense. I just figured out what Gray Wolfe was talking about. HAHA That’s a good one.
Very cool! I was thinking of something snarky to say, but Grey Wolf beat me to it.
I think this is your shroom in question.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis
Looks like a puff ball, which is edible. but this one looks old. Puffballs are delicious. and there are no poisonous look alikes.
I did some more looking and the pattern looked exactly like that on this puffball:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvatia_booniana
but it looks to be a western grower. It doesn’t match the east coast version. I think it is in this genus for sure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvatia
Looks close:
http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5701.asp
I think this is it!
http://www.indianamushrooms.com/images/DSC04241.jpg
http://www.indianamushrooms.com/images/DSC04252.jpg
Calvatia cyathiformis
Yup, that looks like your mushroom!!
Is it hard enough to withstand paint? I was thinking it would make a great pattern with paint on a wall in the deluxe deer shed.
Ceecee – I hadn’t thought about that. We are so far from painting right now but I bet we will see this variety again…It is pretty amazing and I would love to have it in the shed!
That’s a monster!