The "true" Gymnopilus junonius grows on the wood of hardwoods or conifers, and has a stem that is usually about 1 or 2 cm thick and is not often swollen in the middle. It is widely distributed in North America. Gymnopilus ventricosus, from the Pacific Northwest, grows only on conifer wood and can reach astounding sizes (caps to 40 cm); it has a very thick stem that is often swollen in the middle and can reach a width of 10 cm. The yellowish Gymnopilus luteus is found in eastern North America and can only be reliably separated from Gymnopilus junonius/spectabilis with a microscope. All three of these species are probably featured in the photos to the right.

The strongly bitter taste makes Gymnopilus junonius undesirable as an edible, and it is not an easy mushroom for beginners to identify. Plus, eating it may cause the moon to slide through your cable connection and pop out of your television, just when you are least expecting it. But if this sounds entertaining (or at least more entertaining than what usually comes out of your television), I hasten to add that not all collections of Gymnopilus junonius are psychoactive (roughly, it appears that eastern versions are more likely to contain hallucinogens than western versions) and that possession of hallucinogens is illegal throughout North America.

More importantly, for folks who know next to nothing about mushrooms and may be cruising the Internet with the idea of getting high from mushrooms they find in the wild: you are putting your life at risk. Mushrooms are extremely hard to identify--not at all like trees, for example, or even birds. As everyone knows, there are deadly poisonous mushrooms, and accurate identification takes much more effort and study than you are probably willing to devote. Buying "shrooms" from a drug dealer is also illegal, and is also a dangerous enterprise--but it might not be as dangerous as trying to teach yourself how to identify hallucinogenic mushrooms by looking at a few Web pages and photos.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on the rotting wood of hardwoods and conifers; growing in clusters (or, rarely, alone); summer and fall (fall through spring on the West Coast); widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 5-40 cm, convex, becoming broadly convex or flat; dry; silky, or with tiny appressed fibers or scales; orange to brownish orange, yellowish or brownish; the margin inrolled when young, sometimes adorned with partial veil remnants.

Gills: Attached to the stem or beginning to run down it; close; yellowish at first, eventually orangish to orange-brown.

Stem: 3-20 cm long; 1-6 cm thick; more or less equal, or swollen in the middle; silky near the apex; with an orangish to brownish ring zone or with a fairly sturdy ring (especially when young) that folds outward at the top and collects orange spores; covered with appressed fibers below the ring (and sometimes decidedly shaggy when young), but often almost smooth by maturity; rusty orange or yellowish.

Flesh: Thick and firm; yellowish.

Taste: Very bitter; odor mild or fragrant.

Spore Print: Bright rusty orange.

Chemical Reactions: KOH red, then promptly black on cap surface.