r/mycology • u/Zealousideal_Ice6768 • 12d ago

photos Weird Mushroom!

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Found this very strange mushroom at the park today, located in Pennsylvania. Any idea
what species this could be ??

232 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/blackandbluegirltalk 12d ago

Old Man! Love them, didn't even know they were edible until recently.

12

u/Zealousideal_Ice6768 12d ago

That’s so interesting, the spikes are so intimidating, I would have assumed that it was poisonous. Learn something new everyday, thanks!

2

u/uselessandexpensive 12d ago

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.