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winecaps? help with positive ID please

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I don't know how I missed these....must have popped up just a couple days ago?

at first I thought they were shiitakes since I add old plugged logs to those beds and get an occasional surprise mushroom.

Looking closer though, I wonder if they are wine caps?
The three younger one's look correct and the older ones have pale lilac gills? a few have a visable ring on the upper stem.
They are very buggy and overblown. ..what might look like white spots in a photo are big holes.

They were all along the bottom edge of my wooden sided beds in our shaded hoop house.

I removed them before I thought to get photos.

If I can positively ID them as winecaps I would like to propagate them in that path...we have wood chips.

We grew some in a garden bed with strawberries more than five years ago and it seems unlikely these would be from those?

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Pearl Sutton

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They certainly look like it.
Check that they spore print black, but I'm 99% sure that's them.

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Judith Browning

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The stem is solid (other than the holes from bugs)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Megan Palmer

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Lucky you, the are all wine caps.

They may have come in on your woodchips if you didn’t introduce them deliberately.

Judith Browning

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similar but European...
Stropharia hornemannii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stropharia_hornemannii

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Megan, that would be great!
The beds had been covered with wood chips over the winter and I removed most to plant...seems odd that the mushrooms were at the bottom edge of the wooden sides although chips were on the floor also but decomposed....now it is bamboo leaves.

If I wanted to encourage them do you suppose I could just chop up these and mix with more wood chips?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Megan Palmer

gardener

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Location: Zone 9A, 45S 168E, 329m Queenstown, NZ

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Judith, a slurry would certainly work, as would digging up some of the mycelium from where you harvested these wine caps.

They are a little fussy about the type of woodchips though. I found that they didn’t do so well in pine.

How far away were your original strawberry beds - you might be surprised how far the mycelium is able to travel!

Judith Browning

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Pearl Sutton wrote:They certainly look like it.
Check that they spore print black, but I'm 99% sure that's them.

thanks Pearl!
spore print in the works!
will post results tomorrow.

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"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
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Judith Browning

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Stropharia rugosoannulata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stropharia_rugosoannulata

This article says spore print is 'dark purple-brown to black'.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
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Judith Browning

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megan, the strawberry patch is maybe 30 feet from this end of the hoop house...we do move things around, plants with soil and even chips sometimes.

I suppose it's more likely they just showed up in the more recent chips.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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the spore print!

IMG_20260420_042137_689-2.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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We use this 1987 Peterson guide to North American mushrooms as a reference and were surprised when wine caps were not listed.
The genus and species for wine caps in this book is called Rough-Ring.

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
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Eric Hanson

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Judith, those look pretty Wine Cappy to me! Did they just show up? Did you sow spawn or spores?

If the answer is no, then this a bit concerning. It turns out that Wine Caps might be "going wild" and it is not hard to figure out why. But in your case, congratulations, you got them for free.

Eric

Some places need to be wild

Judith Browning

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Eric, we did not sow spawn in that location and it has been at least five years since we did sow spawn in a location at least 30 feet from this area and those only fruited one season.

My understanding is that wine caps are a 'wild' mushroom and not just grown from domesticated spawn?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Eric Hanson

Steward and Man of Many Mushrooms

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Judith,

They are definitely in the wild, but not native to North America. They came from Germany(?). For decades, centuries, they did not spread far, but recently there has been an upswelling in interest in mushrooms and fungi. I have certainly done my part. But this is why they have suddenly been found so much more often.

Feel free to fact check me.

Eric

Some places need to be wild

Judith Browning

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Our 1987 Peterson guide for North American mushrooms lists them but does not call them 'winecaps', rather uses the name 'Rough-Ring' for the same genus and species, Stropharia rugosoannulata.

I've posted the info from the guide above.

The wikipedia link says under 'distribution and habitat'

The species is found on wood chips across North America in summer and autumn.[7] It is also found in Europe, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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and in this guide from 1981 there is only genus and species, no common name!

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Alex Dombrowski

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Those actually do look a lot like wine caps to me - especially the color, the cracking on the caps, the dark gills, and the fact they’re growing in wood-rich beds. The ring on the stem you mentioned earlier also fits. That said, they’re pretty mature and beat up, which makes ID less certain. There are a few lookalikes, so I still wouldn’t call it 100% without seeing younger specimens or doing a spore print. If they come back, try to catch them earlier - wine caps usually have a more rounded cap when young and a clearer ring. A dark purplish-brown spore print would also support that ID. If it is wine cap, you’re in luck - they spread really well in wood chips. Just add fresh chips and keep it moist, and they’ll likely establish themselves in that path over time.

In any case, I recommend always using two tools if you're unsure about something like that:
1. google lens
2. instant plant identification

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Judith Browning

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hi Alex,
thanks for your input!

I posted a nice spore print this morning ...just scroll back up a bit.

I do like using several sources, google lens is not a favorite but it might be getting better?

My preferences are books, local fungi folks and some online searching....and permies of course as there are a lot of kbowledgable folks here.

When I was on facebook there was an expert on Arkansas mushrooms...quick ID and he only did ID's...didn't allow discussion about edibility, only wanted good photos and locations.

Thanks!

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Alex Dombrowski

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Hi Judith, thanks for the reply and the spore print update - I went back and had a look, that definitely helps a lot and makes the wine cap ID even more convincing.

I totally get your approach, books and local mycology folks are usually way more reliable than any app or quick online tool. Google Lens can be hit or miss, especially with older or weathered specimens, so I wouldn’t rely on it alone either. Permies is actually a great mix because you get both experience and discussion instead of just an automated guess.

Nature is a creator who is always right, acting with economy and without error.

Judith Browning

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Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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I don't know this site but was trying to find when 'wine cap' was first used as the common name for these mushrooms....this site had a little history of origin and other things of interest but not about the name.

https://www.shroomer.com/wine-cap-mushrooms/

Wine cap mushrooms are native to North America—particularly the mid-Atlantic states (including New York and New Jersey) and Massachusetts. Yet, their lax cultivation requirements have allowed them to expand to Europe, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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