Every now and then after a big rain these crop up in my basement. No obvious cracks or anything where they pop out of the unfinished concrete floor. I try to dispose of them without too much opportunity to shake of spores, and then douse the floor with bleach, but I also admire their ability to grow with no apparent nutrients.
Mushroom popped up in my unfinished basement after a big rain
18 days ago by pageflight to c/mushrooms
Mouselemming 7 points 18 days ago
So is there a body buried under there?
pageflight 5 points 18 days ago
No, pretty sure they buried the pieces separately.
pageflight 2 points 18 days ago
Yeah, the basement has a dehumidifier, and almost all of the floor is very dry, it's just this corner. Also there's a ridge in the concrete and a clear border of damp versus dry. Usually it's not nearly like this though, we just got about 4 inches of rain.
the_artic_one 6 points 18 days ago
That's a bolete, they grow in obligate symbiosis with the roots of living trees. Their mycelium can extend further than the trees root system so they bring nutrients to the tree and eat the sugars the roots produce.
This means they're probably not gonna go away unless something happens to tree, and even then they'll stick around for a while after it's gone.
pageflight 1 point 18 days ago
Interesting, the nearest tree was the street tree across the sidewalk at that end of the house, died a few years back and was taken out. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure there were some roots coming through the stone foundation wall when we moved in (since sealed & insulated). There's a new thriving tree in its place though, I wonder if the mycelium hop to the new roots.
the_artic_one 2 points 18 days ago
If it's the same kind of tree then definitely. A new tree can graft to the old root system and revive it which keeps the mushrooms alive even though the tree would normally be too immature to support that specific fungal partner.
I'm curious if you know what kind of tree it is, the bolete looks a bit like Suillus which tend to be really specific about their partner. If you're in the Pacific Northwest region I could probably figure out the species from the tree.
pageflight 1 point 18 days ago
Old tree looks like it was a maple?
New tree is a crab apple. I'm in New England.
the_artic_one 2 points 18 days ago
Oh yeah no clue in that case, NE has more genera of boletes than the PNW has species.
ButtermilkBiscuit 2 points 18 days ago
Eatit
Mouselemming 1 point 18 days ago
The folks over at Mycology could probably identify it for you
the_artic_one 2 points 18 days ago
mander.xyz is still down but I'm sure a lot of the folks there are also subscribed to this com.
pageflight 2 points 16 days ago
I was watching all the cool things ecovative is making from mycelium and I admit I'm rather tempted. I have plenty of sawdust I could feed them.
MantisToboggon -10 points 18 days ago
Gross. Clean more.
go to feed...
go to feed...
Worth noting that the mushroom itself is just a temporary reproductive organ that's produced by the actual "body" of the fungus, which is a mycelial network spread through the soil. In this case the soil that's under that concrete. There must be a fair bit of organic matter in that soil, that's what the mushroom is feeding on.
Bleaching and cleaning the floor is fine, but it's probably not going to seep into the soil under there so next time the fungus down below has gathered up enough nutrients to be feeling randy again it'll just poke a new mushroom up through a crack. The cracks are probably just too fine to see. Maybe one solution might be to give the floor a really good scrubbing and cleaning, then once it dries spread some sealant on it? It'll hopefully seep into the cracks and make it harder for future intrusions.
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