I don’t expect to ID every mushroom that I find and eventually have to set them aside! This is my list of mushrooms that I have yet to ID. If you have any information that might help please send me an email! Also, I generally keep a dried specimen of my unidentified mushrooms if you’d like to study one.
October 27, 2022
Possible ID: SOLVED!? Armillaria Gallica
Habitat: dead wood
Season: fall, 50-60*F weather
Spore Print: couldn’t obtain
Gills: attached, close
Notes: growing at the base of two separate stumps at Great Bear Ski Area, SD
October 24, 2022
Possible ID: ?
Habitat: –
Season: near freezing temps overnight
Spore Print: thick, white
Gills: slightly attached, waxy
Notes: Found growing from a seam in a living hardwood tree (ash?). The gills are separable as a layer.
September 26, 2022
Possible ID: Hypsizygus Ulmarius
Habitat: saprophytic on wood
Season: found in late summer
Spore Print: white
Gills: Attached to the stem
Notes: what in the absolute hell? how can a mushroom this big and beautiful (and durable) be so difficult to ID? After I went through two of my older guides I couldn’t find anything to match this mushroom. Then I used Michael Kuo’s key and easily found a 100% match (KOH=negative, growing from scars, etc). BUT! The “ulmarius” name sounded familiar and sure enough one of my former mushroom guides uses Pleurotus Ulmarias to describe a mushroom that “looks like an oyster mushroom”. You can view P. Ulmarias on this page and notice that the cap has a much different flesh. But apparently these two names are synonyms. And according to David Arora it is a synonym with Hypsizygus tessulatus. If three different mycologists can’t agree on this how the hell am I supposed to figure it out?
To make it even more interesting, an almost identical mushroom covered in scales (last photo) was found at the same forest within a week of the original mushrooms.
September 25, 2022
Possible ID: no idea!
Habitat: dead wood, cracks and woodpecker holes
Season: fall of 2021 and 2022
Spore Print: unknown
Gills: ?
Notes: I have found this little red capped mushroom about seven times in the fall of the same forest in Sioux Falls, SD. Smells like baby sweetcorn.
June 15, 2022
Possible ID: coprinus or parasola
Habitat: growing by the HUNDREDS in a lawn
Season: all summer
Spore Print: probably blackish
Gills: –
Notes: This flush springs up during weeks of heavy rain in my neighborhood. It always comes back in the same lawn.
June 5, 2022
Possible ID: ?
Habitat: growing at the base of a dead tree
Season: found while hunting morels
Spore Print: unknown
Gills: Sinuate?
Notes: Found at Oakwoods State Park, SD while camping in early June 2022. Failed to get enough information for a proper ID.
South Dakota Fungi 