Today, having finished my climb in Bt Timah, and returning to the Dairy Farm Car Park, I chanced upon this Giant Agaricus in the male toilet.
From initial observation,
- it has a rather deep depression in the centre where the stipe (stem) is located
- the cap is very unusual, in that it flows down like a skirt
- the stipe is very short for such a big pileus (cap)
Again, I tried to ID this specimen, and the only conclusion I have is that it is a gilled mushroom of the Agaricales Order.
Initial ID seems to place this in the family of the Brittle Cap, but those have long stipes, whereas this does not!
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| Does this specimen belongs to the Brittle Cap family? To me, it is more like a bottle cap! |
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| Placing a ruler, the cap spread across almost 13 cm! |
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| Taking the underside, shows that the gills reach to the end of the cap. |
Naturally, how does one justify a 13 cm size specimen to be a giant, well I looked around and saw couple of the same species growing around, and the spread of the cap was about 5 cam.
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| Two specimens here, with one already badly damaged. Otherwise, the cap spread is about 5 cm. |
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4 comments:
Hi there!
I saw your pics and am very glad to know there are others who are interested in mushrooms/fungi in Singapore!
I am not an expert or anything but I have a strong interest and have been picking mushrooms in the forests of Switzerland where I spent most of last year. I am thus more familiar with european fungi.
Your pics however, made me realise that the dried specimens I had photographed in November last year at ECP could be the same ones! ;-)
Hi Karen,
Thanks so much for your viewing and comment.
Alas, most fungi we find in our forest are simply poisonous.
In most literature, the technique to identifying the fungi requires some form of destruction to the specimen, getting the imprint of the caps (gill); collecting the spores.
For my case, I was trying to let everything as it is, and relying on books and literature for ID.
Once again, thanks so much for your comment.
No worries! I am just happy to know there are others who appreciate fungi here!
I have photographed the exact same species at ECP (as your last 2 pics) late last year. Then, I thought they were very very dried WHITE specimens of trompettes de la mort (trumpets of death). These are mushrooms I regularly pick in Switzerland and very very tasty. I was very surprised to think they could possibly come in white too, but could never verify their actual ID. However, looking at your pic, I think I noticed a skirt on one of the stems, which means it could be from the amanita family and thus, very likely poisonous... :p
Thanks Karen.
See the Giant Agaricus in the 2010 Dec posting?
I am still trying to ID this one.
Take care.
TC Tan
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