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Copyright (2014)
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Fungi base features are important.

Checking out a mushroom base could be a life saving action.  For instance, most deaths by mushroom result from mistaking the death cap, Amanita Phalloides for edible lookalikes.    The Death Cap grows from a volval sack which can be seen at the mushroom's base, perhaps rather torn, but still  evident.  Most mushrooms with a sack at the base are poisonous.

Stem Base Types

Stem base Diagrams by Hannibal's back - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

A Saccate Fungi Base

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A fungi stem base that is growing out a sack or sock is almost always unsafe to eat. The sack is called a volva and it is the remnant of  a  veil of mushroom tissue that  completely covered the mushroom cap  in its infancy. As the mushroom grows  the cap breaks away from the base leaving either a torn or fairly even volva.   Amanita mushrooms have this type of sack at their base and all except one or two are unsafe and even deadly.

An Arrow shaped
 Fungi base

An arrow shaped fungi base
Australia's Cortinarius Australiensis looks rather like an edible horse mushroom  until you notice its arrow headed base and  the bright rusty coloured  remains of its cortina on the stem.  When mature its gills will be rust coloured, a sure sign that it is a poisonous web-cap so don't be  tempted.

An Abruptly Bulbous
Fungi Base

A  bulbous fungi base

A Fusiliform
 Fungi Base
A long root

A Fusiliform fungi base
A Fusiliform base involves a long root  that is often attached to buried wood. FungiOz app includes  several elegant Australian mushroom species with this form.


A Lobed Fungal Sack

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This is the type of volvul sack from which the Death Cap mushroom grows.  The sack is large and floppy but may not be  intact.

A bulbous fungi base
Mushroom with a basal bulb
A scaly basal bulb
A mushroom with a scaly basal bulb
Though not always the case, you should suspect that a mushroom with a scaly swollen base is an Amanita, with the scales being the remains of a volvul sack. FungiOz app includes several  Australian mushroom species where this is the case. Most Amanita species  are either downright poisonous or will  make you very sick.

A stumped fungi base
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Attached to
 Sclerotium

A fungi base attached to its Slerotium
 A slerotium is a fairly solid body of mushroom tissue that can be buried underground and attached to the mushroom's stem base in some way. A notable Australian example is the colloquially named Native Bread which was eaten by Australian Aboriginals  as well as by early white settlers.   The slerotium in this case can be extremely large and looks rather like a white truffle. It fruits   several days after fire or some similar disturbance.

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Ring Types

Diagrams
By Debivort on EN wiki [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

     Descending

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     Ascending

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A Double Ring

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 Moveable

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Booted

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Cortina

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Cortina means curtain and is the Mycological term for a web-like  attachment between the mushroom cap and its stem.  The web fibres can be thick or extremely thin and therefore leave not much more than a stain  around the stem of a mature specimen.   Often there may just be a discolouration of rusty-coloured spores in place of a ring. Such features identify the mushroom as part of the Cortinarius family, most of which are poisonous to some degree.  Web-caps are an extremely large family of fungi and FungiOz app devotes a whole catalogue category to Australian species.

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Check out our printed fungi goods on Redbubble

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Press here For Fungi Oz printed photo goods

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This book is the definitive fieldguide for the 100 Australian species  being mapped by Fungi map.  Its a snap to report your  sightings of these species to Fungimap.

Glossary Menu

Cap
  Shapes
  
Margin Shapes
  
  
Margin Types

 Gill
   Types
   Edges
   Stem Attachment      
 Stem
    Shapes
    Textures

      
 Surfaces Textures
   Hairy
   Bare, warts,     
   scales, granules

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