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Name this fun guy (fungi)

 
pollinator
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I was driving down the highway into town last year and there is this tree full of what I'm pretty sure where oyster mushrooms.
This year I stopped and asked the guy what he is going to do with that old dead tree by the road.
He looked at me and said, "mushrooms"?
I guess I wasn't the first to ask.
Anyway he said he would call when he chopped it down.
I hauled some of it to my buddy's and kept the rest.
Fungi have started to pop, but I'm not sure they are oyster mushrooms.
Different than what I'm used to them looking like anyway.

oyster mushrooms logs by vwfatmobile, on Flickr

I'm used to them all coming from a spot on the tree, not really having a center where the stem is attached.
Maybe because the tree was upright then laid on it's side has confused them.
I picked one and set it so you can see it has gills.
But it might be too small to see in this picture

I also took a video of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49sBk7TQtRY

 
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Hard to say with any certainty as the picture quality is quite poor and the video doesn't show anything of the stem/stipe or the underside of the cap and the gills.

They *could* be oysters but I wouldn't recommend you eat them without taking further steps to identify them. A close-up, in-focus shot of the gills would be helpful. Oyster mushrooms have gills that run down the stem. The stem is often small or even non-existent.

If you can take a spore print of the mushrooms, that would be another useful identification cue. Oysters (Pleurotus species) typically have white, cream, pale pink or buff coloured spores.

I'm going to assume you are in the US but a rough location would also be helpful as it can help narrow down what you'd expect to find growing naturally in an area.
 
craig howard
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The video does show a quick underside view of the mushrooms so you can see the gills.
You might have to hit pause, just checked, that doesn't work because pause is too blurry. I edited it too short on the ending.
I'll take another video tomorrow, without the sun behind it, doh.
My main concern is they have a stem that meets in the center of the cap.
Most oysters I've seen the stem connects to the edge of the mushroom.
There is no center divot.
 
craig howard
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OK, I made a much better video of the fun guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za0ox5W-u94
 
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I’m pretty sure from watching the second video that those are golden oysters. Not native in the US but have escaped into the wild in several states from people growing them.  That’s one reason I don’t grow golden oysters.
 
craig howard
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Thanks, I was showing them to a local and he said maybe golden oysters too.
He didn't say they spread like crazy.
Are they tasty?
Better or worse than the regular oysters?
 
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Mushrooms existed long before the continents separated and drifted apart. That is one reason you can find the same mushrooms around the world, with enough time passage for lots of variations due to evolution. There is also new species being discovered every day. Essentially all mushrooms are native in that regard.

oyster mushrooms feed on dead and dying wood. If they were spreading like crazy, they would just be doing their job in the environment by consuming dead wood, most likely killed by some parasitic fungus.

Even if we didn't want a fungus to spread, we could't prevent it. The spores travel in the upper atmosphere and can survive even in space.
 
William Kellogg
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.
34DC1328-3603-45CA-AB6A-650E636801EE.jpeg
[Thumbnail for 34DC1328-3603-45CA-AB6A-650E636801EE.jpeg]
 
William Kellogg
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These mushrooms are shelf like, and growing on dead wood, similar to oysters. But the stems look rather long to me and I don't see the gills continuing all of  the way down the stem like an oyster.

So I would not try to cultivate these and you can easily cultivate your favorite oysters by purchasing the spawn. Seems like you have the perfect environment for them anyway.
 
William Kellogg
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A wild guess based on the fuzzy video would be Elm oyster because the tree looks like elm family and the color is more pale than golden...
 
William Kellogg
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Jack O Lanterns can also vary a lot in color from amber to pale yellow, so that is another one that looks similar. Jack O Lanterns are poisonous.
 
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