I don’t know. I can’t tell without a microscope. It is probably blue. It is beautiful and I am going to post it.
You have probably seen this a hundred times. Somebody will post a picture of a fungi…
Unidentified Toadstool.
Can anyone tell me what this is?
No of course they cant! I don’t do that I photograph specimens in great detail and when I still can’t get a positive ID I get very frustrated.
I know that you are frustrated too but you see, I am being paid to be mean to you.
Friends are just the stepping stones on the path to success.
I was ambitious once. I will get a bottle of whiskey for looking after her for five days and some things are more important than friendship 🙂
Before I even think about photographing a new mushroom there are certain criteria that must be met.
There must be something distinctive about it, something that makes it stand out from the rest. That will make it easier to identify and it also means that I will recognise it again when I see it.
The other thing is that I must have good specimens. There is no point at all in photographing a single, old, half decayed cap, that will tell you nothing. I want a fresh young fungus in good condition but even better than that is a group of them showing different stages of development.
The big plus for me is if it can also be beautiful (almost a necessity)
This group tick all of the boxes.
The pictures that you are about to see are not good enough/ do not contain enough information for a positive ID. Please keep that in mind when you are photographing new fungi for yourself. You have to give us a chance if you want to know what it is.
Okay I am going to leave that little family group intact in case I want to come back and have another look. There is a little one on the outside of the picture that I am going to look at closer.
So it is Stropharia species. If you find a blue mushroom like this it is almost certainly a Stropharia. They are commonly called Roundheads.
These are probably Stropharia caerulea, Blue Roundheads, they are the most common species but without microscopic examination we can’t know for sure. It might not be blue, it could be Verdigris. (much rarer)
So it goes. They are beautiful and worth posting.
Now I am going to take Miss Grumpy out and try and put a smile on her face, even if that means feeding the sheep some popcorn 🙂
Exact identification can be really hard work, Colin, especially if a fungi has dozens of sub-species. I’ve found many birds hard to identify and flowers…….well, they can be just as hard (having hundreds of varieties/species/colours etc).
I rarely see a toadstool or mushroom (with living in the inner city).
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Thanks Vicki 🙂 Agreed. Very often it just isn’t possible to get an ID to species without microscopic examination. This comes up a lot with insects too. I just have to be content with knowing the genus or family sometimes.
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I can officially say this is the first time I’m seeing a blue mushroom. It’s a rather pretty little thing.
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Thank you Joanne 🙂 There are quite a lot of these blue mushrooms in this garden.
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She looks like she means business.
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Miss Grumpy, that is. Not the mushroom.
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Thank you Don 🙂 There is more of Fizz to come.
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Don’t call Fizz Miss Grumpy. She has a lot to put up with…you and those blu mushrooms.
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Thank you Ibeth 🙂 Yes, poor little Fizz. There is a video coming.
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Oh good. I’ll be waiting.
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I never saw any blue fungi either. Wonderful photos. Fizz wants to play now, please.
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Thank you Sarasin 🙂 Fizz played.
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Thank-you for the fungus ID tips. I am one of those people who photograph a toadstool and then walk on and get frustrated that I can’t ID it later. I must do better! I have never seen such a pretty blue toadstool.
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Thank you Clare 🙂 My landlords lawn seems to be a bit special.
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The benefits of not using chemicals!
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Never saw blue fungi, it is pretty, but is it deadly?
And little Fizz does put up with a great deal just to go on an adventure. Might you see the sweetness in that dear face?
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Thank you Ettel 🙂 It is not really clear if it is poisonous or not. Some references say that it is but others say not. It is not really something that I would instinctively eat, it doesn’t look like food.
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Where I live I rarely see fungi. And even when I see them i wouldn’t know what kind they are. Thanks for your good post Colin! 🙂
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Thank you HJ 🙂 There are so many extraordinary different types of fungi here, playing important roles. It would be impossible to ignore them. I bet that you have got fungi around, I don’t think that our world can exist without it.
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Agree that mushrooms are difficult to identify and there are now too many spring up for me to cope!
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Thank you Georgina 🙂 Just be careful. It all starts with one, easy to identify, common species. You learn it’s name and then you notice another one. Before you know it you will be overwhelmed with fungi and there is no way back 🙂
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Oh dear! And I have now just found a beautiful but beguiling red one! A Russula…. Thanks will try to focus on the Spanish book on Setas/ Mushrooms and there is a special event in a weeks time on this too.
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Am now overwhelmed and captivated by the fungal world. Hongos here in Spain!
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Really pretty, whatever color or kind they are 🙂
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Thank you Joey 🙂
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