Notes:
After sifting through J. M. Barg’s large box of fungi collected from the beech & oak woods on a private property somewhere along McGuire Access Hwy he brought to NJMA’s mushroom fair in Morristown the next day, I fished out these three fruiting bodies of what appears to be sclerotiorum, or a related taxon. These come in addition to obs 336043, also from the same location. I don’t know if all 4 sporocaps were growing next to each other, but the two smaller ones seen here clearly came from the same spot because they have moss stuck to their stipes. The location is in the general Pine Barrens area, but the presence of beech (intolerant of sandy acidic soil) suggests a different type of environment.
Just like 336043, this collection is characterized by the unusually dark and dense red-punctate pattern on the stipe that I haven’t associated with any of my previous collections of sclerotiorum (confirmed or purported) or its genetically distinct lookalike I dubbed “pseudosclerotiorum” (215764 & 286328). Note the variably-colored pulvinate caps and their heavily inrolled margins, the red-tinged cap flesh, and the variable bluing action of the exposed context.
Larger fb = voucher A; 2 smaller fbs = voucher B.