Firsts

I was taking a stroll around a botanical garden here in Sarasota the other day and came upon some really beautiful mushrooms unlike anything I'd ever seen before either in person or in photographs.  I took some photos of them and then came home and contacted as many mycologists I could think of, to see if I could get an ID on these specimens. 

My friend Taylor Lockwood saw my photos and said he thought they looked a lot like a mushroom he'd photographed in Australia, called Agaricus rotalis.  I then contacted the US expert on Agaricus mushrooms, Richard Kerrigan who agreed, they were Agaricus rotalis which had only been recorded in Australia and Hawaii and the Caribbean.  He said he and his colleagues preferred using the name Agaricus endoxanthus which is an older name and more correct.  He also said this is the first collection from nature of this species in North America, and I found it!!