Hypsizygus tessulatus

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Hypsizygus_tessulatus.html

Ecology: Saprobic; usually growing in clusters of two or three; widely distributed in eastern and northern North America, and sometimes reported from the Rocky Mountains and the West Coast; fall. The illustrated and described collections are from Michigan and Québec.

Cap: 4-8 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex with a slightly inrolled margin; dry; bald; whitish to buff or very pale tan; sometimes "tessulated" with watery spots when fresh and young.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close; short-gills frequent; whitish; not bruising.

Stem: 3-8 cm long, 1-2 cm thick; equal or slightly club-shaped; dry; bald or very finely silky; whitish to very pale tan.

Flesh: Firm; white; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive, or slightly mealy; taste not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: White to buff.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4-5 m; subglobose; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Lamellar trama parallel. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis; elements 2-4 m wide, often clamped, smooth, hyaline in KOH.

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Tubaria furfuracea

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Tubaria_furfuracea.html

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously, usually on deadwood or woody debris; often found in urban settings in mulch, wood chips, or disturbed ground, but also found in woods on or around decaying logs and stumps; more likely to appear in winter or spring, but also appearing in summer and fall; originally described from Germany (Schaeffer 1772); widespread in Eurasia, North America, and Oceania; reported from Central America, South America, and southern Africa. The illustrated and described collections are from California, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio.

Cap: 1-4 cm across; convex at first, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; moist or dry; brown to cinnamon brown, fading to dull brownish or nearly buff; more or less bald, but when fresh usually adorned with whitish partial veil fibrils and remnants, especially in the marginal half; the margin not lined, or only faintly so.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem; close or nearly distant; short-gills frequent; pale brownish to brownish yellow at first, becoming darker brown; edges faintly whitish at maturity.

Stem: 2-5 cm long and 1-4 mm thick; more or less equal; usually at least slightly fibrillose to fibrillose-scaly; whitish to brownish or brown; occasionally with a poorly defined, ephemeral ring zone but without a true ring; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Brownish to whitish; insubstantial; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive, or slightly fragrant.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative or grayish.

Spore Print: When fresh brownish yellow to cinnamon brown; dried prints are brown to cinnamon brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6.5-9.5 x 4-5.5 m; ellipsoid, with a tiny apiculus but without a pore; smooth; pale brown to dull yellowish in KOH, with multiple droplets; inamyloid; occasionally collapsing in both KOH and Melzer's mounts. Basidia 25-35 x 4-6 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Cheilocystidia 30-70 x 8-12.5 m; cylindric, with apices usually capitate but sometimes clavate, subclavate, or merely rounded; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis; elements 5-15 m wide, smooth or slightly brownish-encrusted, hyaline to brown in KOH. Clamp connections present.

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Scientists Set Out to Map Underground Fungal Networks, Find They Cover 62 Quadrillion Miles

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-set-out-to-map-underground-fungal-networks-find-they-cover-62-quadrillion-miles/

Scientists Set Out to Map Underground Fungal Networks, Find They Cover 62 Quadrillion Miles

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-set-out-to-map-underground-fungal-networks-find-they-cover-62-quadrillion-miles/

#goodnews #science #environment #ecosystem #biology #mushrooms #forests

Ramaria fennica

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Ramaria_fennica.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; apparently widely distributed in eastern North America.

Fruiting Body: 5-12 cm high; 7-8 cm wide; base well developed; branching repeatedly.

Branches: Vertically oriented and elongated; smooth; purplish below; olive yellow to yellow or smoky yellowish above, becoming grayish to orangish or brownish as the spores mature; tips concolorous.

Base: Usually well developed; to 5 cm wide; white below; lilac to purple above.

Flesh: Whitish, often with watery areas; firm.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste usually bitter, or reminiscent of sauerkraut.

Spore Print: Yellowish to orangish.

Chemical Reactions: Iron salts green on branches; KOH red on branches.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8.5-12 x 3.5-5.5 ; subfusoid to stretched-elliptical; roughened; yellowish in KOH. Clamp connections present.

#mushrooms #fungi #mycology #shrooms #mushtodon #sporespondence #floraspondence

Climacodon septentrionalis

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Climacodon_septentrionalis.html

Ecology: Parasitic on hardwoods, especially green ash, sugar maple, and beech; growing in large shelf-like clusters in the wounds of living trees, or on recently dead stumps or trunks; summer and fall; northeastern North America, south to Kentucky and Tennessee and west to the Great Plains.

Caps: Up to 30 cm across and 5 cm thick at the base; convex, flat, or shallowly depressed; kidney-shaped or semicircular in outline; sticky or dry; hairy or roughened; whitish, becoming yellowish with age; sometimes with fine concentric zones of texture.

Undersurface: Spines 1-2.5 cm long; tightly packed; white at first, becoming yellowish with age.

Stem: Absent, but caps often share a whitish basal plate.

Flesh: White; tough; unchanging when sliced; zoned.

Odor and Taste: Taste mild when young, but bitter or unpleasant in age; odor not distinctive, becoming foul with age.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4.5-5 x 2-2.5 ; smooth; ellipsoid; inamyloid. Cystidia fusoid to mucronate; thick-walled; often encrusted. Hyphal system monomitic. Clamp connections present.

#mushrooms #fungi #mycology #shrooms #mushtodon #sporespondence #floraspondence

Gymnopus subsulphureus

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Gymnopus_subsulphureus.html

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; spring; fairly widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains.

Cap: 1-4 cm; convex, becoming planoconvex; bald; moist; pale to bright yellow; fading markedly as it dries out to buff or yellowish, often passing through a two-toned stage.

Gills: Attached to the stem narrowly; very crowded; yellow to yellowish (rarely nearly white).

Stem: 2-10 cm long; up to about 7 mm thick; more or less equal, with a small basal bulb; dry to greasy; hollow; bald except for whitish fuzz near the base; yellow; base attached to pinkish rhizomorphs.

Flesh: Thin; whitish to yellowish.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste mild or slightly bitter.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 5-6.5 x 2.5-3.5 ; smooth; elliptical; inamyloid. Pleurocystidia absent or inconspicuous. Cheilocystidia up to about 40 long and 2-6.5 wide; variously shaped; often with protrusions or lobes; filamentous. Pileipellis a tangle of cylindric, branching (but not diverticulate or coralloid) hyphae 3-12 wide.

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Helvella palustris

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Helvella_palustris.html

Ecology: Probably mycorrhizal; growing scattered or gregariously on the ground or on woody debris in bogs, swamps, and wet areas; often under northern white cedar; summer and fall; Michigan to New York.

Cap: 1-4.5 cm; irregular (vaguely saddle-shaped or loosely lobed); black to gray; smooth or wrinkled; bald; undersurface smooth, black at first, becoming gray to grayish; the margin free when young, later ingrown with the stem in places.

Stem: 1.5-6 cm long; to 1 cm wide; more or less equal; ribbed, but the ribs not forming holes or pockets; grayish; basal mycelium white.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 16.5-19 x 10-12.5 ; elliptical; smooth; with one large oil droplet or occasionally with two to many droplets. Paraphyses brown in KOH and water; cylindric, becoming clavate to nearly capitate with maturity; 4-15 wide. Excipular surface elements hyaline to brown; often arranged in bundles; frequently septate; terminal cells pyriform to clavate, up to 20 wide.

#mushrooms #fungi #mycology #shrooms #mushtodon #sporespondence #floraspondence