Armillaria Identification

[The Preserver]

I am posting this topic here today both to advance my own knowledge of noxious root rot fungi as well as to help others who may find themselves in a similar situation as I was in recently. This past May, some mysterious golden coloured mushrooms appearing around the base of my ornamental Metasequoia ( Metasequoia glyptostroboides ) gave me quite a fright. As I panicked, I started reading up on as much information about the known tree pathogens as I could. According to a little field guide issued by the local conservation department, the different species of fungi, including those of Armillaria ( aka "Honey Fungus" ), apparently have a fixed fruiting season where they only produce mushrooms during specific periods of the year. At least in my corner of the globe, the most common form of Armillaria ( Armillaria mellea ) is said to only start fruiting as early as late July. I think I can safely rule out A. mellea as the type in this case. In a lot of the photos, Armillaria is shown growing in dense clump clusters - often directly out of the surface of the tree bark or the buttressed roots. The particular mushrooms that I saw were merely growing out of the soil around the buttressed base of the tree and they were not growing in clusters either. I am also very happy to report that I have not noticed any growths of the associated phenomena of the ugly black rhizomorph webs on the trunk typically accompanying an Armillaria infection. At this point in time, it is believed that the golden mushrooms were most likely fruiting Chanterelle. I probably need to hone simple arborist techniques in the future like performing proper diagnostics by cutting out a small patch of bark to examine for signs of fungal infections and replacing the patch of bark after applying an antiseptic.

I found a very interesting and informative video on this topic from a youtube channel called, "Learn Your Land" :

I hope everyone finds this information useful. Please comment if you have any additional knowledge or insight to share on the topic.