╔══ Identifications · 11 October 20268 sightings
speciesAmanita muscaria
locationWamberg
habitatBirch and coniferous forest
edibilityPsychoactive
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Bright red (occ. orange/yellow) cap with white spots
- │ ▸ White gills and stem
- │ ▸ Ring on stem
- │ ▸ Bulbous base
speciesAmanita muscaria
locationWamberg
habitatBirch and coniferous forest
edibilityPsychoactive
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Bright red (occ. orange/yellow) cap with white spots
- │ ▸ White gills and stem
- │ ▸ Ring on stem
- │ ▸ Bulbous base
speciesCantharellus cibarius
locationWamberg
habitatMycorrhizal with beech, birch, spruce and pine
edibilityExcellent edible mushroom
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Golden-yellow, funnel-shaped cap with a wavy, irregular margin
- │ ▸ Blunt, forked ridges (no true gills) running down the stem
- │ ▸ Pale yellow to whitish, firm flesh
- │ ▸ Pleasant fruity smell of apricots
└─ One of the most sought-after wild mushrooms in Europe; a great choice for drying.
speciesCoprinus comatus
locationWamberg
habitatDisturbed ground: roadsides, paths, meadows, parks
edibilityEdible when young, before the gills blacken
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Tall cylindrical white cap covered in shaggy, upturned scales
- │ ▸ White, free gills that turn black and liquefy from the margin once mature
- │ ▸ Hollow white stem with a loose, movable ring
- │ ▸ Cap dissolves into black, spore-laden 'ink' shortly after sporulation
└─ One of the most distinctive mushrooms of late summer; the blackening process (deliquescence) happens within hours, so pick young specimens while the cap is still firm and white.
speciesGanoderma applanatum
locationWamberg
habitatOn stumps and trunks of deciduous trees, especially beech; rarely conifers
edibilityInedible — woody and tough
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Large, flat grey-brown bracket with a dull, crusty top surface
- │ ▸ White pore surface that turns brown permanently when scratched
- │ ▸ Concentric growth zones on the upper surface
- │ ▸ Woody, hard, perennial fruit body
└─ Being totally woody, it can last for years. Draw on the fresh white underside with a stick and the picture remains permanently — origin of the name Artist's Bracket.
speciesHericium flagellum
locationWamberg
habitatSaprobe and weak parasite on conifer deadwood, above all silver fir (Abies alba), in cool, humid montane mixed forest; late summer to November
edibilityEdible when young, but rare and legally protected in parts of Europe; best left in place
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ White, coral-like fruit body of many repeatedly forking branches, up to 30 cm or more across, ageing cream to yellowish
- │ ▸ Long white spines (up to about 20 mm) hanging in tufts from the branch tips, unlike the spines running along the branches of the Ästiger Stachelbart
- │ ▸ Firm, fleshy white flesh with a mild, pleasant smell and taste
- │ ▸ Grows on dead wood of conifers, especially silver fir, on standing and fallen trunks and stumps
└─ Confirmed as a species distinct from Hericium coralloides by sexual incompatibility studies in 1983; strongly tied to silver fir and red-listed as threatened across much of Europe.
speciesMacrolepiota procera
locationWamberg
habitatIn meadows, forest edges and clearings on sunny ground
edibilityGood edible when young
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Large pale cap with coarse, shaggy brown scales; egg-shaped and brown-scaly when young
- │ ▸ Naked margin without veil remnants
- │ ▸ Snake-skin patterned, slightly club-shaped stem with a thick double ring
- │ ▸ Free, close white gills; flesh white, flushed reddish-brown when cut
speciesXylaria hypoxylon
locationKankerbach
habitatSaprobic on dead and decaying stumps and logs of broadleaves, especially beech; also on buried wood
edibilityInedible — too small and tough to be of any culinary value
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Antler- or club-shaped, flattened, often branched fruit bodies like a tiny stag's horn
- │ ▸ Black, carbonaceous surface with powdery whitish-grey tips while young
- │ ▸ The pale tips darken as the sexual fruit bodies mature
- │ ▸ Grows in dense tufts on dead hardwood stumps and logs
└─ One of the most common decomposers of hardwood; the pale 'snuff' on the tips is the asexual conidial stage, which turns to sooty black as the perithecia mature.