Gyromitra montana

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

Ecology: Officially saprobic, but potentially also mycorrhizal--or, like the true morels, donning both ecological hats in the course of its life cycle; found under conifers in spring, often near melting snowbanks; from the Rocky Mountains westward.

Cap: 3-14 cm high; 2-9 cm wide; compact and tightly affixed; loosely wrinkled; bald; sometimes somewhat convoluted or nearly lobed; tan to yellow brown, rarely with red shades; undersurface whitish to tan, bald or finely dusted, ingrown with the stem where contact occurs.

Flesh: Whitish; brittle; chambered.

Stem: 2-10 cm high; 2-6 cm wide; pale tan to white; massive; bald; sometimes developing broad ribs.

Microscopic Features: Spores 26-40 x 11.5-15 ; ellipsoid; often developing short, blunt apiculi up to 1-3 long and about 3 wide--but frequently not developing apiculi, or developing less conspicuous apiculi. Asci 8-spored. Paraphyses clavate; up to <NOBR>10 </NOBR> wide; with brownish contents.

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

Happy Pride!

Here’s a little lamp perfect for this month. I made it a while ago, but it’s still looking for a new home. The mushroom caps are casts of real mushrooms and glow brightly in the dark, even without being turned on. When turned on, the mushrooms slowly change color because they’re equipped with color-changing LEDs.

For sale, CHF 100.-
I ship anywhere except the U.S.

#mushrooms #fungi #mushtodon #mosstodon #mastoart #handmade #smallbusiness #art #forest #pride #prideMonth #nature

Gymnopilus liquiritiae

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

Ecology: Saprobic on the rotting wood of fallen hardwoods (especially in the south) and conifers (especially in the north and west); growing alone or gregariously; summer and fall; apparently widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Missouri, Maryland, and Qu&#233;bec.

Cap: 2-6 cm; convex when young, expanding to broadly convex or slightly bell-shaped; dry; bald; soft; rusty brown to brownish orange; the margin sometimes becoming finely lined at maturity.

Gills: Narrowly attached to the stem, but sometimes pulling away from it in age; close; short-gills frequent; yellowish or pale orange at first, maturing to rusty orange; sometimes with reddish brown spots.

Stem: 2-4 cm long; 3-5 mm thick; more or less equal; bald or finely fibrillose; whitish to brownish or brownish orange; basal mycelium yellow to rusty.

Flesh: Whitish in the cap; orangish in the stem; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Taste very bitter; odor mild, fragrant, or like that of raw potatoes.

Chemical Reactions: KOH dark purplish red on cap surface.

Spore Print: Rusty brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-10 x 4-5 m; ellipsoid; echinulate; dextrinoid; reddish brown in KOH. Pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia 20-40 x 4-7 m; cylindric with subcapitate to capitate apices; thin-walled; smooth; hyaline to brownish orange in KOH. Pileipellis a cutis. Clamp connections present.

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

Laccaria ohiensis

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods; growing scattered to gregariously; not common; summer and fall; North American range not firmly established, but probably widely distributed, at least in the east.

Cap: 0.5-2.5 cm; convex, becoming flat and sometimes uplifted; often with a central depression; usually prominently lined or grooved; bald or finely hairy; orangish brown to dull reddish brown, fading to buff; changing color markedly as it dries out.

Gills: Attached to the stem; distant; pinkish flesh color.

Stem: 1.5-2.5 cm long; up to 2 mm thick; equal or with an enlarged base; bald or finely hairy; colored like the cap; with white basal mycelium.

Flesh: Thin; colored like the cap.

Odor and Taste Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-9 ; globose to subglobose; ornamented with spines 1.5-3 long and 1.2 across at the base; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored. Cheilocystidia usually present; filamentous or subcapitate. Pileipellis a cutis of elements 5-10 wide, with scattered bundles of upright elements; terminal cells subclavate to clavate.

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

Scleroderma polyrhizum

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

Ecology: Probably saprobic, but possibly mycorrhizal; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in grass and in disturbed-ground settings; often appearing in urban settings; summer, fall, and early winter; originally described from Italy (Micheli 1729); widely distributed in Europe and North America; also reported from the Caribbean, Central America, northern Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and New Jersey.

Fruiting Body: At first 8-13 cm across, spherical to cushion-shaped; with maturity splitting near the top and peeling back in irregular rays, becoming star-shaped, or shaped like a ragged-edged bowl, up to 30 or more cm across; surface whitish to brownish or brown, bruising yellowish to reddish, when young fairly smooth and often covered with whitish down, but with age becoming pocked, pitted, or minutely scaly in places, and often covered with adhering soil and debris; rind 2-6 mm thick, whitish, when sliced usually blushing reddish; spore mass at first hard and purple-black, becoming blackish to dark brown and powdery; without a pseudostem, but pinched at the point of attachment; base attached to whitish to yellowish rhizomorphs (the epithet polyrhizon means "many-rooted," a reference to the rhizomorphs).

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative to yellowish on surface.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-10 m excluding ornamentation; globose or subglobose; ornamented with spines 0.5-1.0 m long and scattered to frequent connecting ridges; partially reticulate, or sometimes not reticulate; golden brown in KOH. Peridial hyphae with clamp connections.

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

Boletus separans

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks (and possibly with other hardwoods) and, more rarely, with conifers (including slash pine); growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Georgia.

Cap: 4-20 cm across; convex, becoming broadly convex in age; sticky when fresh, but soon dry; usually somewhat wrinkled; very finely velvety when young, but soon bald; lilac-brown to liver-red or cinnamon when young; lilac shades often disappearing in old age; at maturity yellowish brown to golden.

Pore Surface: White when young, becoming yellowish and finally bright brownish yellow (without olive shades); not bruising, or bruising deeper yellow or brownish when mature; pores "stuffed" when young; at maturity with 1-3 circular pores per mm at maturity; tubes 5-20 mm deep.

Stem: 4-12 cm long; 1-4 cm thick; usually club-shaped when young, becoming more or less equal with maturity; solid; bald; usually slightly wrinkled; weakly to prominently reticulate, over the apex or overall; pale above; usually flushed with the cap color in places below; sometimes developing yellow stains, especially near the apex; in old age often whitish to grayish, without any lilac shades; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Whitish throughout, unchanging on exposure or bruising.

Odor and Taste: Pleasant; not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Ammonia green on cap surface when lilac shades are present (otherwise pinkish to negative); green on lilac-flushed areas of stem surface; negative to pinkish on flesh. KOH flashing green, then negative or dark brown on cap surface; sea green on lilac-flushed areas of the stem sea green; purple, resolving to pale pinkish on flesh. Iron salts gray on cap surface; negative to grayish on flesh.

Spore Print: Brownish to yellowish brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 11-15 x 4-5.5 ; smooth; fusiform; yellowish in KOH. Hymenial cystidia absent. Pileipellis a tightly packed palisadoderm/epithelium; elements hyaline in KOH (or, when fresh, green); terminal cells clavate to obpyriform, 10-15 wide.

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

There's a fungus among us.

#FungusAmongUs #Mushroom #Mushrooms #MushroomMayhem MushroomsOfMastodon #FungiFriday #Mushtodon

For #FungiFriday I wanted to share this impressive #fungus that was growing near Hilton Falls southwest of #Toronto #Canada. These pictures were taken this Tuesday. My apps tell me this is a Dryad’s Saddle (Cerioporus squamosus). One can see why it gets that name…

#mushtodon #sporespondence

Leccinum quercophilum

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks; growing gregariously; summer; possibly widely distributed in North America east of the Great Plains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Michigan.

Cap: 3-9 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex; dry; bald; tightly wrinkled and pitted when young; becoming cracked and mosaic-like with age; orangish brown to yellowish brown; discoloring bluish green toward the margin with age; without a sterile overhanging margin.

Pore Surface: Whitish to grayish brown when young, becoming yellowish brown to brownish with age; bruising slowly dark brown, with or without a bluish stage; with 1-3 angular pores per mm at maturity; tubes 1-2 cm deep; by maturity usually depressed at the stem.

Stem: 5-9 cm long; 8-20 mm thick; gradually tapering to apex; whitish underneath fine, tiny scabers that are whitish above and brown below, arranged in vague longitudinal lines; bruising and staining greenish to blue near the base; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Whitish; staining grayish to gray within 30 minutes of exposure, with or without a faintly pinkish stage; sometimes bluing in the stem base.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Ammonia negative on cap surface; negative to pinkish on flesh. KOH negative to yellowish on cap surface; gray to greenish gray on flesh. Iron salts negative on cap surface; negative or greenish on flesh.

Spore Print: Not recorded.

Microscopic Features: Spores 15-18 x 5-7.5 m; fusiform; smooth; yellowish in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 25-30 x 9-12 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Pleurocystidia 25-40 x 8-12 m; lageniform; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline to yellowish or golden in KOH. Cheilocystidia 30-50 x 10-15 m; lageniform to mucronate, subclavate, or irregular; thin-walled; smooth; yellowish to brownish in KOH. Pileipellis a trichoderm of septate hyphae, hyaline to yellowish or brownish in KOH; terminaland subterminal elements subglobose to clavate or irregular, 25-50 m wide. Caulocystidia lageniform or ventricose-rostrate; smooth; 30-50 x 10-15 m; hyaline to yellowish in KOH.

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

Some tiny red Chanterelles for you to enjoy :) Often too small for many to bother with, they do taste great!

And for #juneteenth let me drop some knowledge on you. Are you ever annoyed by lack of ability to forage due to laws, or someone yelling at you to leave no trace?

Well guess what, those laws and concepts - that we cannot forage anything and must always attempt to have no impact (*tries to not digress at what a weird idea it is that we can possibly exist and never affect anything ever*) including not foraging for food is racist! Yup! Most these laws and rules all have their roots in preventing Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples from obtaining food.

If you are interested in learning about foraging, I highly recommend looking to folk like The Black Forager (sorry, they're only on corporate socials) and others who have knowledge of how to be a part of the earth without over taking.

A general rule of thumb I was taught is "never more than you/family that relies on you need for this meal, and never more than half of what is there". This ensures others can have some, that there is some left, and that what is taken will be used timely and not hoarded.

#forage #nature #NaturePhotography #mushroom #mushtodon #fungi