Hey Everyone. I'm new here. I hope this is the right place for my post. If not, perhaps you could point me in the right direction. Previously I posted this inquiry on the Welcome Mat, and Cuboid was kind enough to provide some info and try to help, but we couldn't nail it down.
I want to place this in Gymnopilus, but it doesn't seem to fit perfectly anywhere. The cream (?) colored spore print seems a little at odds with most of Gymnopilus. I found these in October, on the west side of the Cascades at around 3,500 ft. I started thinking aeruginosis, then moved to luteofolius, in part because of thick, pithy-to-hollow stems, and because MushroomObserver.org suggests that aeruginosis prefers valley floors in my region, whereas it indicates that luteofolius is at home around here in the valleys or in the mountains. But my mushroom isn't bitter (at least not the tiny piece of dried cap I tried), seemed to grow in needle duff rather than on rotting logs, and the spores aren't orange. So now I am wondering if it is a magic sub-type of G. terrestris, which I am under the impression usually does not contain psilocybin (or turn blue).
The bluing isn't generally as dramatic as it is on the snapped cap in the photo here. I suspect that was situational. Picked that first batch not knowing what they were, figured I'd try to ID them when I got home from my camping trip. Picked them in the long dry spell following the first rains of the season, put them in a plastic bag, and tossed them in my trunk. Pulled them out the next day and was mystified at how they had turned blue wherever they were damaged. I thought it was a fast growing blue mold at first, but it was only on the one type of mushroom and the other varieties of mushroom in the bag were unaffected. After a little online research I learned what the bluing phenomenon likely meant. While the bluing isn't always this dramatic, it is unmistakable in any sample that I have found. Green splotches on the tops of most mature caps. Gills turn all blue as they break down during extended wet weather (discovered this on a return trip olinfected with some kind of larvae). Stems bruise blue. Any cut surface bruises green/blue/purple as long as it isn't super dry. Any part damaged in handling bruises blue.
On the spore print photo I included a 'silver' dollar for scale. Those are two of the smallest caps I collected. Only the smallest ones were still dome-shaped. The more mature ones have caps that are pretty planar. These are big mushrooms. Some of the stems are an inch or so in diameter.
Can anyone help me out here? I want to know if they're safe to ingest. From what I see online, the active Gyms tend to run about half as potent as cubensis, gram for gram.
If these aren't some kind of active Gym, then what else grows in the Pacific Northwest that's big and orange, gilled, and stains blue?
Thanks for any thoughts/insights/opinions you would be willing to share!
-The Donger
