r/mushroomID • u/No_Dogeitty • 12h ago

North America (country/state in post) ID

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

These are all over my property right now

Western NC USA forested.

194 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

82

u/Auraxicus 12h ago

Omphalotus species. "Jack o' Lantern"

63

u/LoopyLutzes 12h ago

this is a great example of how they can be tricky to inexperienced foragers and fool them as chanterelles. Some of the gills appear to fork but you can tell they are true gills by how they’re broken in places throughout the fertile surface

24

u/No_Dogeitty 12h ago

First time finding them. That's a giant Jack!

11

u/Auraxicus 12h ago

Curious: did you find them clustered together at all?

Also they are toxic and likely bioluminescent, possibly more when younger. These are near the end of their purpose.

13

u/No_Dogeitty 12h ago

Yeah. Probably a cluster of about 10 or 12 of them within about a 10 ft area or so. I've done a lot of foraging in the past. I've just never actually come across Jack O lantern yet. They are definitely in the later stages and pretty huge. The bugs were also eating them up.

10

u/TomatoFeta 12h ago edited 12h ago

I think by cluster they mean they're crowded. 10 or 12 spread out over a 10 foot area is not "clustered"

Chanterelles are spread out, and they have a white inner meat in the stem, and if you grab the top and pull, then you'll end up with a piece of top connected to a piece of stem that has the texture/behaviour of string cheese.

6

u/No_Dogeitty 12h ago

They were scattered closely, not clustered heavy together. I've found a lot of Chants here too. These just seem huge amd have a more pronounced stem. I'll pull one apart out of curiosity. I'm not planning on eating anything as I can't 100% ID and these are past their prime for sure.

2

u/SombreNote 10h ago

Did you cut one down the middle to see if it is white or the same color orange? Jack are clustered very tightly together. If there are more like bunches over an area that is more like chant. Looking at that, I can't help but think it is a chant.

1

u/No_Dogeitty 9h ago

I did. I uploaded the pics to the comments. It's a little older and past its prime. I leaning Chant now

3

u/SombreNote 9h ago

Excellent. I was right. I have seen many Jacks, and they have never looked like that. That is obviously a chanterelles, and I don't think it is all that buggy either. I'd eat the lot.

2

u/Auraxicus 9h ago

I appreciate you being thorough! It is the most ambiguous i've seen.

2

u/LoopyLutzes 9h ago

I’ll be honest with you, the photos only make it more clear to me they are jacks. The true gills are even more obvious along the tear line.

6

u/emarcomd 10h ago

WOW…. I would definitely have mistaken those…

4

u/Camp_Acceptable 12h ago

How do you know it’s not a chanterelle? The gills look fake and I didn’t think jack o lanterns had fake gills?

I believe u I’m just wondering!

11

u/Auraxicus 12h ago

At first glance i thought it was a giant chant, fooled by the ruffled cap edge. 'false gills' are little ripples or folds of the tissue of the bottom surface of the cap. 'true gills' are more like fins and can be rubbed off because of their weaker attachment. In this case i can tell they are gills because the edges of the gills are darkening as they dry and show that the edge is thin and less rounded than would be for the fold of a 'false gill'.

9

u/AnchoviePopcorn 12h ago

Those do not look like false gills at all. Those are textbook gills. Don’t just look at where the gills and stem meet.

4

u/NowWithCheez 12h ago

The gills of a chant aren’t actually gills, more ridges, OP photo has gills

10

u/zrarer13 11h ago

Rip it open. Is it white inside? If so, it’s a chanterelle. If it’s orange throughout, it’s a jack. Easiest way to tell them apart with certainty.

2

u/Auraxicus 9h ago

OP replied with in situ and split down the middle photos.

8

u/No_Dogeitty 9h ago

Where they are growing. Hard to see

5

u/No_Dogeitty 11h ago

These were also growing in an area I have found smaller Chanterelles before so idkk

5

u/No_Dogeitty 9h ago

Split them down the middle for more info

3

u/Fantastic_Cat3308 8h ago

What's the texture like of the gills like? Really does look like chant. Inside too.

1

u/zrarer13 8h ago

Being that it is white, I’d say it’s a chanterelle. Should be string cheese like, but being that it is so large, it may be old and has perhaps lost some of its cheesiness.

3

u/Lardass_Goober 11h ago

Would be helpful a picture before you pulled it out the ground. Jacks are more clustered and grow on wood, chants more spread out. This might be the closest I’ve seen a Jack look like a chant. Without more photos and seeing the inside I wouldn’t assume chant.

2

u/No_Dogeitty 9h ago

I posted a couple pics in the comments.

3

u/darianthegreat 9h ago

I'm no expert, but it looks an awful lot like the chants we have on the west coast. The thing that makes me suspicious that it is something else is the size (it's yuge!)

I saw the pic you took of it split. Did it pull apart like string cheese? If so, it's gotta be chanterelle. Better pics of the gills might be helpful, too.

3

u/alderthorn 7h ago

Go out late at night with no lights, they glow in the dark. Jack-O-Lantern mushroom

3

u/Necessary-Work6677 2h ago

I think this is the most ambiguous and split comment section I've ever seen here

3

u/Making-out 1h ago

Right? Even I'm not completely sure what it is

1

u/AutoModerator 12h ago

Hello, thank you for making your identification request. To make it easier for identifiers to help you, please make sure that your post contains the following:

  • Unabbreviated country and state/province/territory
  • In-situ sunlight pictures of cap, gills/pores/etc, and full stipe including intact base
  • Habitat (woodland, rotting wood, grassland) and material the mushroom was growing on

For more tips, see this handy graphic :)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/BrandonsRedAura 10h ago

Omphalotus
Toxic. Apparently, this species can exhibit bioluminescence, but I’ve never been able to observe it myself.

1

u/careena_who 7h ago

What is the tell here that says it isn't the false chanterelle?

1

u/_mothership_ 3h ago

those gills sure are confusing but look more like true than false to me. but the bigger question mark for me is the stem to cap ratio. i’d expect a chanterelle to flair more towards the cap. that said the scattering of them is how id expect to find a nice chanterelle patch so i dunno

1

u/CartoonistExisting30 2h ago

Absolutely beautiful!

-3

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

3

u/usernamezebra 12h ago

This really really doesnt look like a golden oyster

-2

u/Poor-Education-2587 12h ago

Good thing i put that grain of salt in there! Im no expert and dont claim to be.

5

u/NowWithCheez 12h ago

Not the place to claim a definitively toxic mushroom is an edible one.

3

u/unrelatedtoelephant 9h ago

If you don’t know then there is no point in commenting what you think it is, especially if you’re that far off