Blue Mushroom

[Rooftree]

I found this blue colored mushroom in a cedar swamp in Penn State Forest. I've seen many different mushrooms in the Pines, this is the first blue one. Checking my field guide on Mushrooms of Northeast North America I can't get a firm ID. I should have taken a pic of the underside, but didn't. My closest guess is Lactarius indigo. Does anyone like to take stab of what this may be, or confirm my guess.

Well, whatever it is, it's a nice little blue mushroom.

 

[Beach&Barrens]

Very cool!

 

[dtpines]

Hi Rooftree!

These look like they could be Entoloma indigoferum - a rare mushroom in the Pines. I found several around the same time as you and near the same location this summer.

As far as I'm aware, outside of this year, these have only been reported once (in 2013) since they were described by Ellis in 1876. And if you're interested, they are included in Dr. Tim Baroni's book Mushrooms of the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada on page 237 (listed as Calliderma indigofera).

 

[c1nj]

Smurf houses?

 

[Rooftree]

dtpines; thanks for the information. I thought I would ever get an ID on this blue mushroom. I also thought I had a very good field guide, Mushrooms of Northeast North America (Midwest to New England) by George Barron, but those two names you described won't in the book. No wonder I couldn't get an ID.

I'm mainly looking for endangered and threatened plants while out in the pines. But if I come across a mushroom, I usually just take a photo, and move on. But more recently I try to get a photo of the underside to help in getting a better chance for identification.

 

[dtpines]

Happy to help! Mushrooms can be difficult to ID from a photograph - sometimes even if you have gill shots and every other angle.

I have George Barron’s book as well and like it a lot. I believe this species is included in Dr. Tim Baroni’s book because he was the one contacted after the second find in 2013. He is also one of the foremost experts in the genus Entoloma and was the one who extracted the DNA for Genbank. His book came out in 2017 so it is a few years more recent than Barron's. New fungal species are discovered regularly so I’d imagine it’s near impossible to keep current with all species in every book too.