I'm a bit shocked by my own mycophobia --- I almost threw away the first King Stropharia mushroom that popped up from our graywater mycoremediation project.  This is our first year growing Stropharia rugosoannulata, but that's really no excuse.  I was the one who researched and chose the species and personally inoculated the wood chips.  But the mushroom that sprang up didn't look all that much like the pictures I'd quickly browsed on the internet, and I thought a wild fungus had invaded my mycoremediation project.

After a more lengthy perusal of the internet (and my field guide to mushrooms), I decided this lovely specimen was indeed a King Stropharia.  We ate it sauteed in garlic last night, so I assume I was right.  Here are the top tips I've run across for King Stropharia identification.

First, take a look at the ring around the mushroom's stem.  Several other mushrooms have rings, but the ring on a King Stropharia mushroom has indentations from the gills along the top, giving it a lined appearance.  The lined ring is probably one of the most diagnostic features of King Stropharia.

Next, take a look at the gills on the underside of the cap.  Notice that they are attached to the stem and are a purply-gray in color.  If the gills are free, then you might have an Agaricus, so beware!  Some Agrocybe mushrooms can look similar too, but have brown gills.

The top of the cap is often maroon in young specimens, but can also be plain old brown (especially as the mushroom ages), so cap color isn't so diagnostic.

I find it interesting that our mycoremediation patch has fruited while the patches I inoculated at the same time under the canopies of nearby fruit trees have not.  Clearly, the bit of bleach in the dishwater doesn't hurt King Stropharia one bit, and frequent soakings are a boon.  Paul Stamets has written that King Stropharia mushrooms may actually depend on coliform bacteria for growth --- perhaps the bacteria going down the drain have helped our mycoremediation patch come out ahead?

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.