Honey fungus - Armillaria mellea
- The Foraging Course Company
- 20 hours ago
- 1 min read
Edible (with caution) mushroom - intermediate Season - summer to autumn Common names Honey fungus, bootlaces, bootlace fungus, honey mushroom
Scientific name meaning: Armillaria is from the New Latin Armillaris, meaning a bracelet or collar. Mellea comes from the Latin Melleus, meaning honey or belonging to honey
Habitat  Honey fungus is parasitic but can also feed saprotropically. It is found on both dead and living wood, including buried stumps and roots. |
Overall structure and growth  The fruit bodies appear as tightly packed clumps of mushrooms. When the wood substrate is visble, black rhizomorphs can be seen. |
Rhizomorphs  Rhizomorphs, meaning root form, are a key feature of honey fungus. They can be found underneath the bark, or where the back once was, of affected or dead trees. These rhizomorphs resemble a mat of black shoelaces. They are formed from tightly packed fungal hyphae. |
Cap  The cap starts off brown and convex, with fine yellow-brown hairy scales concentrated at the centre. It flattens with age and develops a wavy edge and the hairy scales only remain in the centre. It can reach 5 to 15cm and becomes more of a pale honey-colour as it ages. |
Gills and spores  Starting off white, the gills become pale yellow and have rusty spots in older specimens. They are adnate (broadly attached to the stem) or slightly decurrent and crowded. The spore colour is pale cream. |
Stem  Starting off white, the stem eventually turns brown-yellow. It has a woolly scales and is 0.5 to 1.5cm in diameter and up to 15cm tall. There is a persistent and thick ring, which has a yellow colour along its edge. This can be more clearly seen in the gills picture above. |
Flesh, taste and smell  The flesh is white to honey-coloured. The smell and tase is acidic. |
Possible lookalikes  Could be confused with any of the other Armellaria species, which carry the same hazards (see Hazards). Also could be mistaken for sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasiculare), pictured, but this has sulphur-yellow gills, turning olivaceous green with age, or the shaggy scaly cap (Pholiota squarrosa), but this has scales across its cap and stem and smells of radish. |
Edible parts Must be cooked, it will cause severe gastric problems otherwise. Even if thoroughly cooked, this mushroom causes severe gastric distress in some people. Because of this, some sources class it as poisonous. It is not recommended for consumption but is often found in commercial wild mushroom mixes Hazards This mushroom is considered poisonous by some sources and does cause severe gastric distress in some people. It is not a recommended edible
Use in herbal medicine and medicine Some research has been undertaken into potential anticancer activity of this fungus
If you are suffering from any ailment or need medical advice, please see your General Practitioner Other uses None known Importance to other species Provides food for a the larvae of a number of invertebrates
Always stay safe when foraging. You need to be 100% sure of your identification, 100% sure that your foraged item is edible, and 100% sure that you are not allergic to it (it is good practice to always try a small amount of any new food you are consuming). If in doubt, leave it out!
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