5 days in the life of a honey mushroom colony

good series karen

fantastic Karen,great idea,great spot,perfect photos,congratulations

yes right: the honey mushroom, but not this one, the A mellea is the "real honey mushroom" and the A solidipes ("sombre") honey mushroom is the biggest living organism ( It is known to be one of the largest living organisms, where scientists have estimated a single specimen found in Malheur National Forest in Oregon to have been growing for some 2,400 years, covering 3.4 square miles. Armillaria solidipes grows and spreads primarily underground and the bulk of the organism lies in the ground, out of sight. Therefore, the organism is not visible to anyone viewing from the surface. It is only in the autumn when this organism will bloom “honey mushrooms”, visible evidence of the organism lying beneath. Low competition for land and nutrients have allowed this organism to grow so huge and become arguably the largest living organism ) {wikipedia}

Honey mushroom is arguably the largest living organism on Earth! (http://www.extremescience.com/biggest-living-thing.htm)

Great series! It's nice to see the how the mushroom looks in it's various stages of development.

http://www.amazon.com/North-American-Mushrooms-Inedible-Falconguide/dp/0762731095 That's a great starter book, I would say over the winter months familiarize yourself with several field guides. You will be ready for the first ones to come up in the spring. :-D We have lots and lots of edibles here, some of them are super flavorful some of them bland, but they all are great in my opinion depending the dishes you are going to make.

Karen, you could always grab a shovel and take some of the dirt from around this clump, and transplant it to a new location where you may have a fallen log or rotting stump. ;-) Just a suggestion. Very great series, I love watching them from start to finish!!!

nice series, karenL, thumbs up, i have a similar serie about "5 days of an amanita muscaria" . and i'm happy, that it was at least from the fam. armillaria. maybe you will see him back. there is already "mycel" onder the ground and this "batch" has also let loose of his spores. "it will be back". :)

Thanks, too for sharing such vivid photos. I am really amazed.

I like this series a lot... it's interesting to watch the life cycle.

Very attractive, nice shot!

Nice pictures. I have a series over several days: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/7470597 These were growing at the base of a dead loquat. Is it possible there's a stump under the grass to support them?

Honey mushrooms grow on wood, is this right next to or near a tree? If so they could be growing on an underground root. From "All That the Rain Promises, and More", "this (honey mushrooms) is the only clustered white-spored mushroom that grows on wood and has a ring plus stringy white pith in the stalk!"

i know, here i find them mostly also with round cap long stem. but the last month have i seen many picture from some american Armillaria's, by some i thought : nooo, but it shall be so !! I just judge from what i saw,it was maybe helpfull with some backgroud info. long stem , or ring, color and structure of the stem. but i sure it has white/cream spores (some are on the lower laying caps). aparte thick gills. center dark and the rest of the cap brown with little darker pattern. i'm not sure but i suspect !!!