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Fistulina hepatica

Fistulina hepatica

Photo by Mark Ridgway
Published on Project Noah
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-37.8818, 145.361

Field Notes

Description:

Looked like a snake head coming from under a log. Very leathery on top with a dark rim at margin; stipe very thick and rubbery; gills-tubes seemed like tightly folded torn curtains; 150mm across; 40mm thick; there seemed to be much juice within it.

Habitat:

From under a very mossy eucy log in moist tall eucalyptus forest.

Notes:

I found this again five days later and it had become darker, smaller and more jelly like. I tested the connection to the log and only extracted it with maximum effort. I was also amazed at how heavy/dense it was.

____ Still have no idea as to ID. Those curtainous 'gills' are nowhere to be seen....
Update Aug 2014... those gills are 'packed tubes' only found in Fistulina hepatica and one or two others. Thanks to Elizabeth Bicevskis and Genevieve Gates for helping resolve this saga.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (9)

Fistulina hepatica !!! An unusual variation with exposed packed tubes at the margins. :)
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/10654636
Hi birdlady6000. Thanks for that. I have looked at toothed fungi and couldn't really decide if this is 'worn teeth' or gills folded like tight curtains. Maybe I should forget pico-conservation and take a much closer look at these things. The beefsteak fungus is still the closest superficially but not right. Might be easier to delete them all and do trees. :)
Photo #2 looks like it is a "toothed" fungus rather than "gilled"?
Bizarre. Mycology may become more colorful and variable and confusing and spectacular as entomology.
Photographed
PublishedMarch 12, 2012

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