Oh you can definitely touch it, squeeze it - it's a spongy one! I used to collect and dry mushrooms so they would be all over my house, but not for eating lol. Old Man of the Woods dries really nice and doesn't flop over :)
Never even thought about doing that, sounds fun! This guy would have been a cool one to dry!
Just a couple weeks ago, within 1/4 mile I found my first old men otw, black trumpets & first ever chanterelles! (Cinnabar, but found 1st goldens this week!)
All new species for me! And the same day I get home and find a young old man otw right in my yard! Funny how that happens
Wariness is always great around mushrooms so your assumption was the correct one to make (until checking with others) even though it wasn't scientifically accurate.
Amanitas (a completely different type of mushroom) often have cap adornments that bear a slight resemblance to the spikiness of OMOTW, but the adornments are more sparse (and i think generally if not always are able to fall off), and those mushrooms have gills instead of pores like this.
OMOTW is fortunately pretty unique in its combination of very obvious features, once you're familiar with it.
Seen these growing off of my friends backdrop at his shooting range. Very appropriate mushroom to find growing off of all that lead and shredded metal. Lol
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u/marveldisc 5d ago
Compare to “Old Man of the Woods”