A buff-yellow to orange-buff, often clustered rustgill of decaying hardwood in eastern North America, with a fragile ring zone, rusty-brown spores, a bitter taste and gills that smell of anise when fresh. It is one of the North American mushrooms long recorded under the European names Gymnopilus spectabilis or G. junonius. Thorn et al. (2020) found that true G. junonius does not occur in North America, and G. luteus is the eastern hardwood species of the group.
Not edible; very bitter and possibly psychoactive. Psilocybin and psilocin have been reported, at lower levels than in Psilocybe (Wikipedia, citing Thorn et al. 2020); Maryland Biodiversity Project calls it poisonous and 'possibly hallucinogenic'. Legal status of psilocybin varies. Do not confuse with the deadly Galerina marginata (smaller, brown, amatoxins) or jack-o'-lanterns (Omphalotus; no veil, whitish spores).
Never eat a wild mushroom based on a web page — confirm with an expert.
Habitat
Saprobic; alone, in groups or small clusters on dead, well-rotted hardwood logs and stumps. June to November.
Distribution
Eastern North America; Wikipedia describes it as widely distributed in the eastern United States and Canada, and Maryland Biodiversity Project has records from several Maryland counties.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-20 cm, convex-hemispherical becoming broadly convex; buff yellow to warm buff orange; staining orange-brownish, sometimes bluish-green, when injured or with age. Gills: adnexed, close, thin; pale yellow becoming rusty brown; strong anise odor when fresh. Stem: 4-10 cm long, 0.5-3 cm thick, colored like the cap, staining yellowish-rusty when handled, sometimes bluish-green at the base. Veil: fragile, leaving a submembranous ring or fibrillose zone near the top of the stem. Taste: very bitter. Spore print: rusty brown. Spores: 6.5-8.3 x 4.5-5.7 um, elliptical, minutely warty, without a germ pore (Wikipedia).
