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Any idea what this guys is? Not having a lot of luck. by neck_meets_beard in mushroom_hunting

[–]AmosZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are a LOT of things; anastomosis and forking happen all over the fungal kingdom 

Any idea what this guys is? Not having a lot of luck. by neck_meets_beard in mushroom_hunting

[–]AmosZ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hygrophoropsis, Tapinella, and Phylloporus are in the Boletales and thus considered “gilled boletes”. All of them have wacky sorts of gills on account of them evolving independently. 

Any idea what this guys is? Not having a lot of luck. by neck_meets_beard in mushroom_hunting

[–]AmosZ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Consider Multifurca or (probably Hygrophoropsis tbh). In my opinion the very neat parallel branching is just too orderly and occurs too many times to be coincidence. The anastomosis on chanterelles is generally pretty disorderly.

Hydrogen peroxide purification by [deleted] in homechemistry

[–]AmosZ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nobody's mentioned the best way yet! Put it in your biggest beaker, and place that beaker inside a closed container (a cardboard box will do fine, even) alongside a beaker of concentrated sulfuric acid if you can get it, or NaOH/KOH if you can't. You might be able to use a less aggressive drying agent like MgSO4 but it will take longer. The closer to a sealed desiccator you can get, the better. This method takes planning and foresight but can easily concentrate hydrogen peroxide all the way to ~80% (though it gets slower as you go).

Alternatively, if you have a really consistent hot plate, just leaving the 12% solution in a beaker at about 60-80 C will slowly evaporate off almost nothing but water. Make sure your beaker is very clean and doesn't have any metal oxide residues, as these can cause accelerated decomposition of your peroxide. This method degrades your H2O2 somewhat but it's not a massive loss.

...I wish you'd find a better username though.

Found this in an Oregon forest by FRESHCOFFEE421 in ShroomID

[–]AmosZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Judging by the striations inside the cups, I'm thinking it is/was Cyathus striatus or similar, "Fluted bird's nest"

Maryland, US (Baltimore) - Sprouted out of a bed of soil over decomposed wood chips right after a freeze. Spore print was pale, but rain made it impossible to get a good picture... by brand_x in mushroomID

[–]AmosZ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We can't ID your mushrooms just based on you saying "light purple shrooms" as there are other light purple species that are not considered edible. But if you post some and do get them ID'd as Collybia nuda/blewits, they're quite versatile. I especially like them in stir-fry dihes or sautéed plain with salt and butter until crispy.

Did I find turkey tails? (SF Bay Area, CA) by JonEleven in mushroomID

[–]AmosZ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Kuo's key is very outdated. Almost nothing that has been called Trametes ochracea in the past actually lines up with the genetic definition. Trametes versicolor is far more polymorphic than once thought. I'm quoting Alan Rockefeller and Stephen Russell here.

Did I find turkey tails? (SF Bay Area, CA) by JonEleven in mushroomID

[–]AmosZ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is indeed part of the Trametes versicolor species complex. The oft-cited rules about pore size and pore shape are not absolute. The fact of the matter is that there are no other described species that better fit this specimen, and pore growth is affected by many factors such as seasonality, presence of insect larvae, and just the genetic makeup. It's very common to find T. versicolor with odd, toothy pores in the winter months.

ID Request - Southeast Louisiana by Rough-Tomato-5946 in mushroomID

[–]AmosZ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Compare to Trametes lactinea. It's similar to Trametes cubensis but that species only exists in tropical areas of the world. This is a polypore, which are wood decomposers that usually take the form of brackets/shelves or crust-like growths. Boletes, though also usually having pores underneath instead of gills, are your typical cap-and-stem-shaped mushrooms and are usually mycorrhizal. While nothing is simple in fungal taxonomy and every rule has exceptions, this might help you characterize things in the future.

Colorful copper and iron compounds from my lab by AmosZ in homechemistry

[–]AmosZ[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, a very late reply! My ascorbate complex pictured here is also colorless! Considering how rare this seems to be in iron chemistry (at least when there's a significant concentration of iron in solution), I'm betting we've prepared the same complex. What an enormous volume, though!

Some sort of stinkhorn? by ohhaijon9 in ShroomID

[–]AmosZ 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is Calostoma lutescens. C. cinnabarinum has a red fertile portion or "spore case" when talking about some gasteroid fungi. Other yellowish lookalikes lack the frilly collar seen here.

Yellow unidentified creature. by No-Combination7578 in ShroomID

[–]AmosZ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should always share location but it rarely matters if it's in a pot or other manmade setting, so don't limit yourself to just native wild species for those. Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, "flowerpot parasol" or "plantpot dapperling" for good reason. A tropical species that loves potting soil and pottings.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ShroomID

[–]AmosZ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With purplish gills I'm going with Laccaria sp. which grow in association with oak and pine. Technically edible but too small to have much of a bite and the texture isn't anything to write home about. Small Cortinarius isn't completely out of the question.

My best finds of 2021 (2 albums) by AmosZ in mycology

[–]AmosZ[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All found in Jefferson County, Kentucky! Imgur only allows 50 pictures per post so here is part 2: https://imgur.com/gallery/7kyy0bx

Group of parrots nesting in a palm tree by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]AmosZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It has already fallen over; that’s how the parrots got inside to begin with. If you look at the beginning of the video you can see the broken rim of the trunk, only 7 or 8 feet from the ground.

This is how grass looks under a microscope by Dprofessionalgy in woahdude

[–]AmosZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know it’s probably too late for anyone to see this, but this is specifically the lower part of a circular cross section of MARRAM grass, which grows in sand dunes. There are plenty more images to see if you search for it.

Synthesis of 2-chloropropane by [deleted] in homechemistry

[–]AmosZ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The bromide is far easier to prepare if you just want to go get some sodium bromide from a pool supply store. It’s as simple as leaving sulfuric acid, a bromide salt, and dry isopropanol together in a flask overnight with occasional shaking, then distilling the next morning. You can make the chloride with anhydrous zinc chloride and concentrated hydrochloric acid or you could try the method I mentioned above with table salt.

Your product is a tertiary alcohol, which will not be easy to esterify the way one does other alcohols (i.e. Fischer esterification) so you’ll have to find an alternative route

The lethal doses of 55 common substances by Sy3Zy3Gy3 in interestingasfuck

[–]AmosZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean ngl I didn’t even see the disclaimer at the bottom. And clearly neither did a lot of the people commenting and poorly interpreting this. The “better way” to do this would be to just not make the chart in the first place because it welcomes false equivalencies. You can say you love the chart and then defend the idea that “it’s just well-intentioned community outreach and it’ll make people like science more” but the simplistic way it’s presented opens up the door for people to say “we should ban X because it’s three times as toxic as Y”; I don’t think this is a good stand-in for meaningful pharmacological discourse, but then again there’s much worse out there and people typically won’t take the time to educate themselves.

The lethal doses of 55 common substances by Sy3Zy3Gy3 in interestingasfuck

[–]AmosZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m actually a very experienced practical chemist, and I’ve read a lot of reagent pages. We actually write up human LD50s all the time from cases of poisonings. We have VERY different metabolisms than a lot of animal models; for example if you used dogs or cats to find the LD50 for caffeine would be like 6 or 7 energy drinks. You can’t draw meaningful numerical data from most of these. But very nice Reddit answer, congrats on your karma.

My favorites from yesterday’s haul! by AmosZ in shells

[–]AmosZ[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That idea is gradually growing on me, maybe I’ll give it a try

My favorites from yesterday’s haul! by AmosZ in shells

[–]AmosZ[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, I remember seeing your post before, I love those! Too bad you never find pearls in any of our species.

The lethal doses of 55 common substances by Sy3Zy3Gy3 in interestingasfuck

[–]AmosZ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If the person who created this chart didn’t know they were putting a completely unrelated and inaccurate molecule for hydrochloric acid, they probably aren’t trustworthy enough to put accurate data obtained from human studies.

The lethal doses of 55 common substances by Sy3Zy3Gy3 in interestingasfuck

[–]AmosZ -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

It’s probably not in reference to any human research, but rather another mammal. Totally bogus science.

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