Honey Fungus Identification – Armillaria mellea

The Honey Fungus doesn’t just get its name from its color; it’s also sweet-tasting. However, it’s not all sweetness. It can cause Armillaria root rot. That’s a type of disease that affects plants. Trees that get infected by this fungus will show signs like their leaves changing color or branches dying. A fun fact about Honey Fungus is that the thread-like parts of the fungus underground, known as mycelium, can glow in the dark when they are growing.

Honey Fungus: Key Parts in Photos

Stu’s Images, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Elizabeth Axley, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tom Zucker-Scharff, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Michel Langeveld, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify Honey Fungus

When you’re out mushroom hunting, here’s what to look out for:

1. Cap: The top part of the mushroom, or the cap, is sticky when it’s wet. It can be between 1-6 inches wide. When young, it’s convex in shape, and as it grows, it becomes flat, sometimes even looking a bit like a shallow bowl. The color is just like honey. Sometimes, in the center, there might be some dark scales that look like little hairs.
2. Gills: Underneath the cap, you’ll find the gills. They start off white and may turn a pinkish-yellow as they age. These gills are how the mushroom releases its spores.
3. Stipe (or Stem): The stipe is quite long, sometimes up to 8 inches, and has a sort of fibrous feel. At the top, it’s white, but it turns brownish-yellow at the bottom. The very bottom might be very dark. Something special about the Honey Fungus is its ring. This ring was once a veil that protected the gills when the mushroom was young.
4. Taste and Smell: The inside of the Honey Fungus is white. It smells and tastes sweet but might have a slight bitter touch.
5. Spore Print: The spore print of Honey Fungus is print. Under a microscope, these spores look like tiny ovals with a small pointy bit at the bottom.
6. Mycelium: Beneath the soil, the Honey Fungus spreads out in threads, forming a net called mycelium. They sometimes group together to form black structures called rhizomorphs. The Honey Fungus Mycelium can glow in the dark when growing.

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