The mushroom shown here has the provisional name of Gliophorus psittacinusPNW01. Notice the lack of green color. There are other differences too, but significantly, the DNA is very different. (07/05/2023)

So when SSMC sent in a tooth fungi found by Mary McCallum that was expected to be H. peckii, we were shocked when the sequence suggested the "eastern" H. diabolus! Where this sequence results gets especially interesting is that H. diabolus has been virtually abandoned as a species and has instead now been lumped in with the Strawberries and Cream species. But when Mary’s sequence is compared to other species in GenBank, the closest match to H. peckii was a dismal 88.86%! Taken with the characteristics suggested by Steve Trudell, this is absolutely a distinct species and any suggestion to combine it with the H. peckii is wrong. It looks like the conclusion that the species is an east coast species is also incorrect. The benefit of DNA! 

While the best case match to H. peckii is a dismal 88.86%, Mary’s mushroom does match a recent sequence from the Oregon Coast at 100% with a 100%qc. Confirmation, the species exist here. Besides getting it sequenced, Mary also used some of the fungi as an experimental dye where she dyed a silk scarf. Watch for a picture of that on Facebook.

The latest SSMC sequence to be bouncing around the world is an observation by Kitty that she found at the Port of Shelton prairie edge habitat. It originally was expected to go into GenBank as Arrhenia subglobisemen which is a rather new species described from France in 2016. However our friend Andrus just led a paper that just coincidentally looked at the Arrhenia group. In that paper the scientist suggested that two sequences from Norway likely should be worked up and given species status as sister species to A. subglobisemen. They are calling the potential new species AC-1. 

What is fascinating is that Kitty's sequence matches extremely close to the two Norwegian sequence!! How is that even possible given the distance between the two? The scientist were excited to get the sequence of this mushroom and were especially happy to get the quality photos that Kitty took and we shared with them. Watch this space to see how this turns out. For now Jean Lodge has Kitty's mushroom moving on as Arrhenia aff. subbglobisemen. 

Sometimes the DNA results are surprising to what they match as in the case of Melodie's H. reidii, while at other times we get a DNA match to hardly anything and wonder what the DNA is now trying to tell us. From high in foothills of the Olympics on the Wynoochee Pass Trail, Regina found the interesting tooth fungi pictured here. Regina thought maybe Sarcodon calvcatus but a DNA match to the closest of that species was a dismal 83.08% (66% qc). Remembering that a good number to start thinking species separation is 97% - so at 83% this is clearly a different species. When we do a blast in GenBank, which compares Regina's sequence to all others in this huge database, there are only two matches worth considering. The only really close match is to a fungi from China at 99.1% (99%qc) which is listed as a Sarcodon but with no species name. The second closest match is to maybe a mushroom from Scotland. This one has no species name attached either so likely these three belong to a new undescribed and unnamed species. One from Urumqi China, one from Scotland and now a third form Wynoochee Pass in the Olympics! How crazy is that that these three far flung mushrooms are so closely related - but not to anything else? Great discovery by Regina. 

Melodie Gates of SSMC found the first example of this mushroom in Washington State during an early Evergreen MP foray - actually likely to be the first confirmed observation this side of the Mississippi River! A second 100% match to Melodie's find was later sequenced also by the SSMC. The second sequence from a very different location and habitat as it was taken from the Olympic Mountains old growth forest. This second mushroom was also a fascinating surprise. The fact that these two sequences expands the range of this species by half a continent is surprising enough, but there is more to the story about Melodie's find; the mushrooms from the PNW match up closest with European H. reidii. Sequences from Wales and Norway are virtually a perfect match while matches to eastern NA are more distant. None of the field guides from western US have this species even listed so it likely very rare here. Usually with an ID characteristic of the sweet smell of honey. Unknown edibility.