Community find

Big Laughing Gym

Gymnopilus junonius

Group

gilled mushroom

Spore print

Rusty orange to rusty brown.

Size

Cap: 5-20cm diameter; Stipe: 8-20cm long, 1-5cm thick.

Season

Typically fruits in summer and autumn (late spring in warmer climates).

Habitat

Grows in clusters on living and dead wood, or on buried stumps and roots of both hardwoods and conifers.

Distribution

Widely distributed across North America, Europe, Asia, and parts of the Southern Hemisphere.

Key characteristics

Large, sturdy, orange to yellow-brown cap with fine scales. Broad, yellow-orange gills and a thick stipe with a distinct ring. Generally bitter taste.

Fruiting body

Cap is convex to flat, 5-20cm, yellow to orange with small scales. Gills are yellow, turning rusty brown with age. Stipe is 8-20cm long, often swollen in the middle, with a persistent membranous ring.

How to recognise it

Check for the rusty orange spore print, the bitter taste of the flesh (spit out), and the cluster growth on wood with a clear ring on the stipe.

Look-alikes

Gymnopilus ventricosus (lacks bitterness, larger), Armillaria species (have white spore prints), Galerina marginata (much smaller, darker spore print, different ring).

Ecological role

Saprophytic, breaking down wood and decaying tree stumps.

Notes

This species is part of a complex of similar-looking fungi and was historically named Pholiota spectabilis. It is often studied for its ability to produce enzymes that decompose lignin.