Galerina marginata: Don’t mess with me!

Mushrooms are a very conspicuous component of Deering’s forested land. The often large, often brightly colored and often edible mushrooms stand out. The gaudy, brightly colored Amanitas, deadly or otherwise, Russulas and Lactarius stand out in the dark forest. Some Boletes such as the Cep lookalike Boletus nobilis, and the shelving Chicken of the Woods are culinary delights in addition to being highly attractive. But far more mushrooms are nondescript, small or drab or both. LBM’s — Little Brown Mushrooms — growing from leaf litter and rotting wood are just not visually interesting, nor are they big enough to consider their taste — unless your were lost (in Deering?) and really, really hungry.

In that case you really must remember to stay away from mushrooms that have brown gills/spores and boletes that stain blue as a general principle. Most of these won’t kill you, just make you pretty ill and wish you were dead — but some will kill you, and your death will not be pretty.

So it is with Galerina marginata (earlier known as G. autumnalis). A little brown mushroom if ever there was one. This little mushroom contains the same toxins as the deadly amanitas, such as A. bisporigera — a common species here. It’s a slow death. First you will be sick, then you will get better — and then a day or so later your liver will deteriorate and, without a liver transplant, you will die. There is no antidote to these amatoxins.

Galerina marginata, and all Galerina species, grows from rotting wood and often in association with mosses. Where it’s been investigated the moss suffers from the association, unlike other moss-mushroom pairings that are mutualistic, with each partner benefiting from the relationship. This Galerina is variable in its form, but the basics are a smallish orange-brown cap (maybe up to 4 inches in diameter), a narrow stem with a membranous or fibrillose ring around the top, just below the cap, and rusty brown spores. But, because the species is variable, it has been described under several other names, in addition to G. autumnalis. The scary part is that it can look to some like edible species of Armillaria, Pholiota, Kuehneromyces or Flammulina.

Although G. marginata can appear from June to fall, it is more common in the fall. I have seen this species twice in Deering in recent weeks this late fall.

Galerina marginata and other wood inhabiting species perform an important role in nutrient recycling in forests. Rather than forming mycorrhizal associations with trees, and sharing nutrients with them, these fungi break down components in wood and return that carbon to the cycle of life in our forests.