Big Mushrooms on Wood

Found on large pieces of fallen wood. Pleurotus and Hohenbuehelia are characterised by having no stipe, or a short stipe on the side of the cap. The other genera have a long, central stipe. Armillaria and Hypholoma are usually clustered in groups, whereas Pluteus is almost always found as single caps. Pluteus has pink spores (the gills have a pinkish tinge and often have a narrow dark line along the edge), Hypholoma has brown spores, and the others have white spores.

 

NameImageDescriptionNZFungi Entry

Agrocybe

Spore print dark brown. Caps up to about 20cm diam., smooth, dry, yellow-brown in colour. Stalk robust and in some species with conspicuous hanging ring frequently covered by a deposit of brown spores. Gills when young completely covered by veil until shortly before cap is fully expanded. The genus is common with about a dozen species including both native and exotic species, on substrates suc...

Armillaria

Spore print white. Caps up to about 10 cm diam., smooth or with small scales on the top, sticky when wet, brownish or yellowish in colour. Stalk very tough, fibrous, darker than cap. Gills covered by a veil when young, the veil persistent as a ring around the stalk when mature, although the ring often becomes flattened against the stalk. Gills attached to stalk.
Typically found in large grou...

Gymnopilus

Fleshy mushrooms always on wood, cap dry, finely felty, gills covered with a veil when young, often the remains of the veil form a ring on the central stalk. Spore print rusty brown to orange. Often growing in clumps. The species are variable in size, the large G. junonoius often more than 10 cm across, while some of the less commonly seen species (not treated here) are only 1-2 cm.
S...

Hohenbuehelia

Fleshy fungi attached to the substrate directly from the side of the cap, or through a short stalk at one side of the cap, cap smooth, spore print white.
Saprobic
Eight species of Hohenbuehelia have been reported for New Zealand, but most are poorly un...

Hypholoma

Spore print purple-brown. Medium-sized mushrooms growing in clusters on fallen wood. Cap smooth, convex to bell-shaped, with small central peak in H. acutum, usually with scale-like veil remnants around the edge of the cap. Gills with a greenish tinge, attached to stalk. Gills covered by veil when young, but when mature the veil remnants are whispy against the stalk, not forming a proper ri...

Lentinula

Tough-fleshed mushrooms found on fallen wood, characterised by the hairy pale scales on the dark cap, and the ragged edge to the gills. Stalk slightly darkened towards base, tough, no ring. Spore print white. Saprobic.
Could be confused with some species of Gymnopilus, but these have brown spore prints. Armillaria has a similar, tough stalk and white spores, but has a ring on t...

Pholiota

Fleshy mushrooms on wood; cap glutinous or sticky, typically with dark scales emebbed in slime; gills covered with a veil when young, often the remains of the veil form a ring on the central stalk, often scaly below the ring. Spore print cinnamon brown. Often growing in clumps, usually on standing dead wood. The species are variable in size, the large P. aurivella up to 10 cm across, while ...

Pleurotus

Fleshy fungi attached to the substrate directly from the side of the cap, or through a short stalk at one side of the cap, cap smooth, spore print white. Saprobic
There are at least 6 species of Pleurotus in New Zealand, P. purpureoolivaceus being particularly common in Nothofagus forests.
...

Pluteus

Spore print pink. Almost always on wood (the endemic P. terricola is found on soil), usually on large pieces of wood and almost always seen as a single fruiting body. Cap velvety, dark brown or with dark brown patches. Gills pinkish, very fine, free. Stalk without a ring.
There are about 15 species in New Zealand, most confined to native forestsd, but one or two possibly introduced. <...

Tricholomopsis

Large, white-spored, wood inhabiting mushrooms. There are 2 species reported from New Zealand, the caps of both species are densely covered with red-brown scales, and with bright yellow gills. No ring on stalk. Spore print white. Saprobic.
There are two species reported from New Zealand, one thought to be exotic (T. rutilans), the other native (T. ornaticeps). T. ornaticeps is...