#hypomyces

October 2025

🍄‍🟫All bodies of these fungi from the Boletaceae family are covered with a white or yellow coating — a fungal mold called bolete eater (lat. Hypomyces chrysospermus). The life of this mold is divided into three stages:

★ the first stage — white mold. The “host” is still alive and even continues to grow, although already infected;

★ the second stage — ripening. The hypomyces begins to turn yellow, which is why it earned the nickname “golden mold”;

★ the third stage — the completion of its development and life. Instead of, for example, a bolete, there is now a shapeless, decayed mass. At this stage, the hypomyces turns brown. The hypomyces literally decomposes and digests its host.

This species can be found in all areas where Boletus mushrooms grow💫

🍄‍🟫Все тела этих грибов из семейства болетовых покрыты белым и жёлтым налётом — грибной плесенью, именуемой гипомицес золотистоспоровый (лат. Hypomyces chrysospermus). Жизнь данного грибка делят на три стадии: ★ первая стадия — белая плесень: «хозяин» ещё жив и даже продолжает расти, хотя уже заражён; ★ вторая стадия — созревание: гипомицес начинает желтеть, благодаря чему получил прозвище «золотая плесень»; ★ третья стадия — завершение развития и жизни: вместо, например, моховика теперь остаётся бесформенная, сгнившая масса. В этой стадии гипомицес приобретает бурый цвет и буквально разлагает и переваривает своего хозяина.

‘Statement of Katherine Elizabeth, regarding a boarder in her house.’

tried to do a mock-up cover myself for the latest statement from the archives, looked at lots of pictures of fungi for this <3

Ate/cooked Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum) for the first time last night. I added some Chanterelles and attempted to make a creamy vegan dish (sort of) resembling a chowder. I’ve never tasted lobster before but the texture is very firm and rich in a way I’d assume lobster would be.

Another fungus from up at Dwellingup - in fact, two fungi. It’s a large bolete being parasitised by a ascomycete. 

Gyroporus is a small genus of bolete, with brittle stems with hollow cavities in the mature stem, and yellow spores. The colour they change when cut is an important diagnostic feature when IDing them. In G. cyanescens, the flesh turns blue when cut, but in this one it turns a deep violet, so it’s almost certainly not the same species despite being nearly identical in other respects. The real G. canescens is found in Eurasia, the eastern US, and apparently here in Australia too, but it’s entirely likely that many of the latter are imposters. 

This one was growing under a tree next to pasture, in shallow leaf litter, but it’s also found in sandy and grassy areas.

The Bolete Eater, on the other hand, is found in North America, eastern China, and Europe, where it is common, and here in southwest of Western Australia. A slightly odd distribution, and may indicate that it was introduced by people, but it’s far from the only species of fungus that widely scattered. 

The fungus spreads out over the pores of the infected bolete, and eventually the rest of the mushroom, forming a continous white crust that turns yellow and then reddish brown as it matures.    

Throwback to that time I found these lobster look alikes!