Signs of Spring

I believe this fungi is Bisporella citrina, in the category of Inoperculate Cups.  It is very common throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere.  These are on a stump near our pond.

More Amazing Fungi

The woods in our yard continue to surprise us with amazing fungi. How could we not have seen any of these before?!?!

As you can see, this one measured in at 8" across! Pushing up through the surface of the forest floor, the cluster of three were full of dirt and pine needles captured in the flared infundibuliform caps as they emerged.The stipe was fairly short, but incredibly thick and fleshy. I believe this one is identified as a Russula brevipes.

Transparent and grayish, these toadstools were slimy and sticky, and produced a medium brown spore print. I haven't identified it yet.

I have never noticed these false morels around here before! Maybe I just wasn't looking, though. Darrell seems to be the one who brings them to my attention! The browned-topped one is an elfin saddle (in the family of false morels). The stipes are deeply furrowed, with longitudinal ridges and pits, and chambered within. They are all identified as helvella lacunosa. According to my mushroom book, the white topped ones are the same thing, but infected with hypomyces cervinigenus. I am not sure if the white eventually turns to black, or if the black topped fellows are something else.

I found this Chlorophyllum olivieri out by the chicken coop. The cap is large, umbonate and broken into concentric scales. There is a distinct ring on a smooth stipe. The spore print shows abundant white spores. They like to grow by compost, so what better place to call home than right outside the chicken coop?

I hope you find some little tidbit of interest in this uneducated babble about fungi. I am brand new to mycology, so I may have incorrectly identified some of them, too. Just don't eat any, and you shall be safe :-)

Mycology

Main Entry: my·col·o·gy
Pronunciation: \mī-ˈkä-lə-jē\
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin mycologia, from myc- + Latin -logia -logy
Date: 1836
1 : a branch of biology dealing with fungi
2 : fungal life

I made good on my commitment and checked out two books on mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest from our library! How 'bout them cookies? The more I read and try to identify specific mushrooms, the more I find that I do not understand yet about fungi. I am taking notes, as they recommend, and slicing, and examining and taking spore prints! I am learning vocabulary like campanulate, and universal and partial veil. Or how about infundibuliform or scrobiculate or alliaceous or gleba? Mycology has an entire language of its own, and unless you understand the terms, it is difficult to identify your mushroom in hand. It will be a long process of learning for me, but I have commenced with my studies :-)

Remember this big mushroom (top left) from my last mushroom blog? As it matured, the cap (margins) raised up and it turned a tannish-brown color. This was my first spore print I took. See the upper right photo in the first picture board? To take a spore print you cut the stipe (base) of a gilled mushroom off, then put it upside down on a piece of white cardstock, cover with a bowl (to prevent drying out too rapidly) and leave it for several hours or overnight. Pretty fun! This print shows cinnamon-colored spores. The color of the spores help in the identification process.

Here is another species I am working with. I found them on the barked path to the garden. These spores were black-brown.

While I was dragging brush debris to the burn pile, I came upon these beauties on the well road. The tops were shiny, sticky and slimy! They grew in clusters, and the spores were a medium brown.

These photos are mostly the dried up mature ones from the picture on the top left of this picture board. They are weird. I think it is considered to have a universal veil. They are soft like a puffy marshmallow. Inside are fibers that house prolific brown dust-like spores that literally fumigate the surrounding area!

I found this blue-green beauty today while cutting down the Japanese anemones! I love the color! The bottom left picture is of a more mature one. Looks like a fried egg to me! It, too, was shiny, sticky and slimy. Interesting to find the stipe hollow inside. I am still collecting a spore print on it. Like finger printing, but takes longer!

The first photo shows an example of a cup-fungi (discomycetes). Their shapes are more or less cup-like. It was nesting close to the house, on some bark. The next ones are quite common around the yard, especially in the grassy areas.

And remember this one? It is the only one I have tentatively identified as a Coprinus comatus, otherwise known as Shaggy Mane. If you look closely, you will see a drip of something like black ink oozing from the cap. It is described as being tall and stately! So true!

That was my fun for this past weekend. I have much to do in identifying all these species yet. Meantime, every time I go outside, I seem to stumble upon yet another variety!



Falling in love is like eating mushrooms, you never know if it's the real thing until it's too late.
~Bill Balance

If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools. ~Katherine Mansfield

Question for a prize to the first who answers correctly: What is the difference between a mushroom and a toadstool?

Mushrooms: Another New Hobby?

We are stumbling upon so many different varieties of mushrooms in our yard this year! My curiosity has been peaked to the max now, and on my list of things to do is to check out some library books on the subject of identifying the species of the Pacific Northwest.

This one is particularly fascinating!

Never seen anything quite like it!

The cap is shaggy-scaly, a pretty shade of tannish-orange, with delicate black curls on the edge.

It is precariously supported on a tall stalk, yet stands perfectly straight. I tried searching on-line for its name, unsuccessfully. Does anyone know the name of this beauty?

Trying to take over the garden by my greenhouse and now invading my lawn, these mushrooms are a nuisance! The first picture shows them before they burst open; the second shows them having already exploded. When I scoop handfuls of them out of the ground, a copious, fine yellow powder escapes to cover the surrounding 5 foot radius. Probably assuring a heavy crop for next year.......

More newcomers to my yard this year.......... you cannot tell by the photo, but the cap on the middle one is about 3" tall! Pretty interesting!

I hope to be able to report back to you with the names of these and perhaps other mushrooms soon! Meantime, if you recognize any of them, clue me in!

Interesting Life Forms

Along the trail to Lake Serene, Chereé and I spotted many different fungi and other plant life:

We named these 'Little Boobs'

Cute little shiny 'shrooms

This one looks like a slug carrying a glob

The perfect mushroom from the 1960's

At first we thought this was a slug, but it was another shiny fungi.

Shelf Fungi

Like steps up a tree!

The Clam

My favorite!

So colorful!

Pretty Lichen

Anyone know what these flowers are?

Wild Blueberries were ripe

It always amazes me to keep finding new plants and fungi on each hike I take. What a blast God must have had during the creation process!