Spencer Smith

Stropharia aeruginosa I found the biggest patch of Stropharia I’ve ever seen on Saturday (swipe to the end to see a little video) There’s at least 3 species of these striking blue Stropharia but I did microscopy on this one and it seems to match S. aeruginosa which I don’t think I’ve spotted before. Under the scope I saw narrowly clavate (club shaped) cheilocystidia (structures with unknown purpose on the gill edge) and mucronate (condom shaped?) pleurocystidia (mystery structures on the gill face). These microscopic features separate S. auruginosa from the other 2 blue ones I don’t know if all the Stropharia in the patch were this one though and if you look carefully you can briefly glimpse some burgundy mushrooms which in hindsight could be Stropharia inuncta but I didn’t pick any so who knows for sure I used Geoffrey Kibby’s Agarics Vol 3. part 2 for the info