Purple-gilled Laccaria

Smooth, convex caps that were tan/buff in color. Gills were slightly decurrent, nearly distant, and were thick, waxy, and dark purple. Stipes were slightly swollen near the base and had lilac basal mycelium. Some of the stipes had reddish brown discoloration.

comments (10)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

I'm surprised so many of the species you share are endemic to the eastern USA. Is there a geographic reason for this isolation? Posted 7 years ago
1. Christine Young
  
  Lion
  
  Hmmm, good question. My guess would be that it is due to several factors. The US has such different habitats and weather conditions spread across it, so I would assume that weather is a crucial factor. The northeast gets a lot of snow in the winter, and the southeast gets a lot of rain. Mushrooms need lots of moisture to grow. Also, humidity is high along the east coast, especially in the summer. We have lots of forests with a huge variety of tree species, which many mushrooms have mycorrhizal associations with. Also, there are lots of swamps, rotting wood, mossy woods, etc., all of which appeal to mushrooms. Plus, there is the physical barrier of the Appalachian mountains. Personally, I usually seek out places way off the trail where other people don't go, and I purposely go to mixed forests with lots of oak, birch, and conifers to find the best diversity of mushrooms. In early summer, some locations that I go to have so many mushrooms that I can't shoot them all and need to watch my step because they are everywhere! It's pretty cool :). The Northwestern US also has a lot of amazing fungi! Posted 7 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Sounds like much more than a guess, some very solid reasons :)
    I envy the habitat you have near you, and luckily I can follow some of it remotely!
    
    Don't want to trick you into a lot of work, but I've been having the idea for a while now how cool it would be to create a list similar to @morpheme, yet this time for the fungi, plants of the east instead of the west. I'm seeing a lot of similarities in the quantity of observations and the locality and diversity.
    
    It's just a thought. Such a list can be created at any time so just growing the collection for now is also a much wanted path, the list can be created later :) Posted 7 years ago
  2. 1. Christine Young
      
      Lion
      
      Great idea! So, I should create a Fungi of the Northeastern US list, then I can go back and add past spottings to it in addition to future spottings, right? Posted 7 years ago
    2. 1. Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        Yes, exactly. From the add to list screen, you can both create a new list or add the photo to an existing list. So first photo you would create the list from that screen, all next photos you add it to that existing list.
        
        Idea for this list would be to add one entry per species, as the goal is to showcase species diversity in your area. Furthermore, you could have two lists: one for plants, one for fungi.
        
        These are all just suggestions, they are your lists and you can do with it what you want.
        Posted 7 years ago
      2. Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        I see you started to build the list, quite rapidly, and it's wonderful. Glad I was able to trick you into this :)
        
        I already pinged @morpheme your list, I'm sure she'll love it too. Posted 7 years ago
      3. Christine Young
        
        Lion
        
        Thanks for tricking me into it! I’ll be making more lists! Posted 7 years ago
        
        Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        Nice! Looking forward to it.
        
        If I may give some guidance on lists....
        
        First, lists are yours. You can create as many as you want, add whatever you want, there are no rules. So anything below this is merely for your consideration.
        
        I see a lot of people making lists that are either just things they personally like, or they pick a specific kind of category in the taxonomy.
        
        In the first case, the value of the list is largely limited to the personal level. In the second case, using the species browser you could pretty much see the same thing automatically. Similarly, creating a list that based on a single country, is also something that can be simply browsed to from the location browser.
        
        There's nothing wrong with such lists, yet it is admirable to try to build lists that have value at the community level. The key tip to achieve that is to find an interesting dimension into the total set of photos and species we have. For example, a list showing examples of camouflage in action, is something you cannot browse to, there's no way to filter for behavior. So such a list takes a new dimension into looking at nature, one we did not yet have, therefore it has tremendous value.
        
        Behavior is just one example, the dimension could be anything. Color, mimicry, rarity, photography style, season, the possibilities are endless.
        
        It's of course also possible to have both personal and more community-like lists, again, no rules. Posted 7 years ago, modified 7 years ago
        
        Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        Loving your new lists, thanks so much for creating them! I hope you're an obsessive collector and organizer, as that's a really great thing in this context lol. Posted 7 years ago
        
        Christine Young
        
        Lion
        
        Thanks! I love making them, lol. I have a list of lists to create :). Posted 7 years ago