Interesting fungi in houseplant pot

Any clues as to what this is?  It started out as a very pale yellow mat growing across the soil surface of my potted plant (which is a rubber tree).  Now it is sprouting dozens of little Dr. Seuss-like structures, up to 3/8" tall and growing every day.

Very interesting. Please post some more pictures as the mushrooms grow and mature. I am very curious to find out what these might be.

One year the soil in my Ficus sprouted mushrooms.  I had repotted this plant 20 years before in compost straight from the pile.  I took the mushrooms to the mycology lab at the U of Washington and was informed of it's name (which I don't remember) and that it was edible.  I sauteed them and they were the best mushrooms I have ever had.  The pot was entirely coated in a white substance which subsequently flaked off and the mushrooms have not appeared again.  Had those mushrooms sprouted in the ground where they could expand I believe they would have continued.  It was all quite amazing to me.  These particular mushrooms were much larger than yours and the test to determine if they were edible was to slice them open and if they quickly turned purplish they were the good kind.

that test only works on a few types of mushrooms so be careful

adunca have you snapped any more pics since then?

I'll take another photo this week.

The fungus in the photo has not gotten any larger, though it has darkened and it looks like more fungi are starting to grow on the sides of it.  I'm guessing that it would grow bigger if the humidity was higher.  But there's not a lot I can do to change the humidity in the building.

you could water and kind of cover the pot with a bit of plastic kinda wrapping it  around the plant just need to make sure to give it a little fan now and then

I just now took a few more photos:

The original fungus, close.  Note that there is now "fungus on the fungus", coming out the left side.


The original, from a bit farther away:


Some others:


The whole pot.  All the white stuff is the same fungus.

Very interesting!

I regularly inoculate my pots of plants growing inside with either culture or spore solution. It helps with growth immensely.

Seems like that primordia is dying off, maybe from RH levels....

Try putting like a plastic sheet or bag over the substrate and poking holes for fresh air exchange. I bet they will mature if you do that.

They look like just another LBM that one would find in their lawn after a good rain.

Excellent suggestion - I put a piece of plastic over part of the pot on Friday, look what I found today (Monday):



These are about 5 times the size of the ones in the previous photos!  And they grew this big in one weekend.

Humidity seems to be a huge factor!

_-~Clinton~-_@$prey wrote:
Very interesting!

I regularly inoculate my pots of plants growing inside with either culture or spore solution. It helps with growth immensely.

Seems like that primordia is dying off, maybe from RH levels....

Try putting like a plastic sheet or bag over the substrate and poking holes for fresh air exchange. I bet they will mature if you do that.

They look like just another LBM that one would find in their lawn after a good rain.

That is interesting,  I wonder if they are a result of the soil used for potting or something symbiotic growing on the roots of the rubber plant? 

Boy do they grow fast!  They lifted up the plastic "dome" so I had to come up with a couple of taller ones.  They really are quite beautiful!

Wow!  How is the rubber plant doing ?  I wonder if it is a good symbiotic relationship or a parasitic one?

Synergy wrote:
Wow!   How is the rubber plant doing ?  I wonder if it is a good symbiotic relationship or a parasitic one?

The rubber plant is fine, although it grows quite slowly so I probably wouldn't see any impacts for weeks.

The plant roots are well below the mushroom action so I tend to think there is no interaction.  But I haven't dug through the soil to check.

Are the mushrooms starting to look familiar to anyone?

The fungi can have mycelium that is unseen down in the soil and often have a symbiotic relationship with a plants roots . It is sort of a science phenomena that is getting better known as it may affect a lot of plant production for us to have a better understanding rather than use fungacides. If you watch Paul Stammets lecture on TED , I think titled  6 Ways  Fungi May Save the World   
It is worth watching and sort of what is piqueing my interest now in how I can incorporate fungi in a permaculture system on my horse farm.

Amazing!

Try posting your photos and descriptions over at http://mushroomobserver.org - there are a great number of professional and amateur mycologists over there and there's a good chance somebody there will be able to figure out what you are growing.

frankenstoen wrote:
Amazing!

Try posting your photos and descriptions over at http://mushroomobserver.org - there are a great number of professional and amateur mycologists over there and there's a good chance somebody there will be able to figure out what you are growing.

Will do, thanks!  I'm getting a 500 error from that site but I'll try again later.

Found it  - it's a Lemon Yellow Lepiota, Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, also known as a Yellow-Pleated Parasol.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/leucocoprinus_birnbaumii.html

Those look great any chance your going to take some sporeprints?

frankenstoen wrote:
Found it  - it's a Lemon Yellow Lepiota, Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, also known as a Yellow-Pleated Parasol.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/leucocoprinus_birnbaumii.html

Bingo!  Great job.

By the next day the show was over:

MycoFreak wrote:
Those look great any chance your going to take some sporeprints?

I am not familiar with sporeprints, can you point me in the right direction?

basically you just put a cap on some foil (cut off as much stem as you can) and let it sit for 12-24 hours  but here is a video that will explain it a little better  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGfGMTCLGWM&playnext=1&list=PLF7C8E962839EFBAD