Magnificent Mushrooms! #19

Good afternoon everyone! I am back again with another look at one of our mushroom varieties found in this area. This one can be found all through northeastern N. America, though in some areas it is not very common, such as in our area. They are called “Gloioxanthomyces nitidus”. Quite the name for a small mushroom.

I couldn’t find a more common used name, but something like Golden Light would certainly be appropriate for this mushroom. They are often found in the darker areas of the forest and they almost seem like glowing lights they are so bright. The word nitidus means bright and shining. They are found in hardwood forests or areas of mixed hardwoods and coniferous trees.

Here it shows the cap of this little mushroom.

The cap is anywhere from 1 to 4cm across and the stem can be up to 8cm long. The cap is a nice glowing golden or yellow color but can fade with age. The stem is the same color, but again, it can fade with age and become nearly white in color. The cap and stem are very slimy and slippery.

This shows the stem better.

Apparently it has no real flavor to it, but due to its slimy texture it doesn’t seem like it would be very enjoyable to eat. I would pass on this one. Most are very small anyway so it would take a lot of them for adding to a meal and, here at least, not many are encountered.

But it is an interesting little mushroom and its bright color really stands out nicely in dark places. The one in my pictures has a cap that is 2.5cm across. That’s all for this one, have a great weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.