I'm kind of afraid to guess, L. laccata has fooled me so many times. I'm also trying to remember the distinguishing features of L. bicolor, as I recall that was a suspect on a few occasions. Does it taste like wet newspaper? I recall L. laccata is not very host-specific, thus making it a popular subject for experimenters, and I love the springtail story - have you heard this? -frog
I don't recall eating any Laccarias, the wet newspaper ref came from someone else, part of a discussion of mushrooms one would eat if necessary, not by choice. I've heard the Laccaria springtail story from various sources, but the best telling comes from Larry Evans. I can't tell it like he does, but the gist is that some biologists were doing some springtail (Collembola - small insectoids) experiments, and amongst the things they gave the springtails to eat was some Laccaria mycelia. After leaving it for a bit, they returned to discover that instead the Laccaria had eaten the springtails! The analogy being leaving pizza with some teenagers to find that the pizza had eaten the teenagers :-). There are a number of fungi that eat microfauna, using sticky traps, "lethal lollipops" or plain old poison, but Laccaria is notable for eating some dam' big prey. -frog
That is so cool. Looking on the www, I see this from "The role of fungal secondary metabolites in Collembola ― fungi interactions" (Scheu/Brose) Mycorrhizal fungi such as Laccaria bicolor are able to kill Collembola and exploit their nitrogen pools (Klironomos and Hart 2001). They paralyse Collembola and thereafter infect and digest Collembola tissue. Similarly, saprotrophic fungi may paralyse insects through the excretion of the toxin ostreatin (Klironomos and Hart 2001). This reversed trophic interaction between ectomycorrhizal fungi and soil arthropods indicates that animal nitrogen and phosphorus is traded for carbon from the host tree by mycorrhizal fungi.
Laccaria bicolor has purplish mycelium at the base of the stipe (but only when fresh, and for no more than a few minutes). I've eaten bicolor & laccata & nobilis (which is the more common species of the 3 in CO).
