Lactarius uvidus

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with quaking aspen, big-toothed aspen, and birch (also sometimes reported under conifers); growing alone or gregariously; summer and fall; fairly common in eastern North America from roughly the 41st parallel northward, but also reported from the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Cap: 3-10 cm; broadly convex with an inrolled margin when young; becoming shallowly depressed, with an uplifted margin; slimy or sticky when fresh; bald; purplish to pale drab lilac, darkening with age and often becoming lilac brown or merely brownish when mature; without zones of color, or with faint zonations.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem or beginning to run down it; close; white when young, becoming pale tan; staining and bruising purplish.

Stem: 3-7 cm long; 1-1.5 cm thick; equal; smooth (very rarely with potholes); slimy or sticky when very fresh and young, but soon dry; whitish; often developing yellowish stains, especially near the base.

Flesh: White; firm; staining lilac when sliced.

Milk: White, becoming creamy on exposure to air; staining all surfaces lilac.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste mild or somewhat bitter (never strongly acrid).

Spore Print: Pale yellowish.

Chemical Reactions: Cap surface green with KOH.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7.5-11 x 6.5-8.5 ; broadly ellipsoid; ornamentation consisting of broad ridges extending 0.5-1 high; usually not forming a complete reticulum. Pleuromacrocystidia to about 80 x 10 ; subcylindric to subventricose or fusiform. Cheilomacrocystidia similar. Pileipellis an ixocutis.

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Gymnopus iocephalus

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing scattered, gregariously, or in loose clusters on leaf or needle litter or from woody debris; summer and fall; distributed in the southeastern United States from Florida to Massachusetts, Missouri, and Texas.

Cap: 1-2 cm; convex with an incurved margin when young, becoming broadly nearly flat, with an uplifted and wavy margin; moist or dry; bald; purple when young, fading to lilac or grayish lilac; the margin lined, sometimes nearly to the center.

Gills: Narrowly attached to the stem, or nearly free from it by maturity; close or nearly distant; reddish purple.

Stem: 2-5 cm long; 1-3 mm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to the apex; dry; finely velvety with whitish fuzz; purplish above and drab grayish or yellowish lilac below.

Flesh: Pale lilac; thin.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive, or sometimes reported as reminiscent of gunpowder, garlic, or radish; taste unpleasant.

Chemical Reactions: KOH green to blue on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 6.5-8.5 x 3-4.5 ; smooth; lacrymoid to ovoid; inamyloid. Pleuro- and cheilocystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis of branched and interwoven elements 3-7.5 wide.

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Ganoderma curtisii meredithiae

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

Ecology: Saprobic and parasitic on the living or dead wood of pines (species of Pinus, with bundled needles); causing a white rot, often as a butt rot; growing alone or gregariously; annual; spring through fall; distributed in the southeastern United States. The illustrated and described collection is from North Carolina.

Cap: 3-10 cm across; 2-6 cm deep; more or less semicircular in outline, or irregularly kidney-shaped; surface with a lacquered-looking outer crust; zoned with yellow, white, and red when young, maturing to red, brownish red, or reddish brown overall; bald.

Pore Surface: Whitish to pale brownish when young, becoming medium brown with age; bruising darker brown; with 3-4 tiny, circular pores per mm; tubes 0.5-1.5 cm deep.

Stem: 2.5-4 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; lateral and angled; bald; lacquered like the cap; brownish red to reddish brown or, in age, black.

Flesh: Tough but not woody; whitish when young but soon very pale brown; with melanoid bands (see discussion) but without concentric growth zones.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH instantly black on flesh and tubes.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-12 x 6-7 m including the hyaline vesicular appendix; more or less ellipsoid, with a slightly truncated end; appearing double-walled, with a series of "pillars" between the walls; finely stippled; inamyloid; dull golden brown in KOH. Cystidia and setae not found. Hyphal system trimitic. Clamp connections present.

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Meripilus sumstinei

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

Ecology: Parasitic on living oaks and other hardwoods (also reported on Douglas-fir) and saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; causing a white rot; growing in large clusters of rosettes near the bases of trees; often reappearing in the same place in subsequent years; summer and fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, and occasionally reported in the west.

Fruiting Body: Up to 30 cm broad or more; composed of multiple caps sharing a branched, stemlike base.

Caps: 5-20 cm across; fan-shaped; finely velvety or bald; whitish becoming brownish with age; often radially streaked and concentrically zoned; the margin thin, bruising and aging black.

Pore Surface: Whitish, becoming dirty tan; bruising dark brown to black when fresh; with 6-8 round to angular pores per mm; tubes to 8 mm deep.

Stem: Whitish, becoming brown to blackish with age; tough; short; often off-center.

Flesh: Firm; white; somewhat stringy.

Odor and Taste: Mild; pleasant.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on flesh.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-5.5 x 4.5-5 ; smooth; subglobose; inamyloid; with a distinct apiculus. Fusoid cystidioles present but not projecting. Hyphal system monomitic. Clamp connections absent throughout.

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Lysurus cruciatus

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously, usually in urban habitats (lawns, landscaping, gardens, and so on); widely distributed in North America; also known from South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia; summer, or, in warm climates, year round. The illustrated and described collections are from Colorado, Washington, and New South Wales, Australia.

Fruiting Body: Initially a whitish "egg" up to 2 cm wide and 3 cm high; emerging to form a mushroom with a stem and a head. Stem 3-6 cm long; 0.5-1 cm thick; whitish to pale orange; round in cross-section; more or less equal; pocketed; spongy and soft; hollow; base encased in a white volva that is attached to white rhizoids. Head consisting of 4-7 short arms 1-2 cm long, initially folded inward with tips touching, but with age separating and standing individually; arms tightly wrinkled in concentric accordion-like folds; narrowed to a point at their tips; hollow; dark to pale orange; at first with a longitudinal "seam" on the outer edge—but with development the seam opens up to form a flat, sterile surface; elsewhere the young, fresh arms are coated with malodorous, dark brown spore slime.

Microscopic Features: Spores 2.5-4 x 1.5-2 m; elongated-ellipsoid to subcylindric; smooth; hyaline to yellowish in KOH; inamyloid; not cyanophilic. Context sphaerocysts 10-60 m; subglobose to irregular; walls 1 m thick; hyaline in KOH. Volval tissue composed of parallel hyphae 2-6 m wide, frequently septate, clamped at septa, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline in KOH.

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Clathrus columnatus

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously; often near woody debris (sometimes directly from stumps or living trees) in lawns, gardens, cultivated soil, and so on; spring through fall, or over winter in warm climates; distributed in North America from roughly Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast and Mexico; also found in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. The illustrated and described collections are from Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia.

Immature Fruiting Body: Like a whitish "egg" 2-3 cm high; when sliced revealing the red to orange stinkhorn-to-be encased in a brownish gelatinous substance.

Mature Fruiting Body: 5-12 cm high; 2-4 cm wide; consisting of 3-5 column-like arms arising separately (not from a shared stem structure) and joined seamlessly at the apex; arms arising from a white volva; base attached to white rhizomorphs.

Arms: Up to about 1 cm thick; more or less equal; sometimes becoming flattened on the outer edge; hollow; spongy and soft; finely pocketed; orange to red, fading to pinkish or pinkish orange or nearly yellow.

Volva: Sac-like, encasing the base of the fruiting body; white.

Spore Slime: Brown; produced on the inner edges of the arms near or just below the apex of the stinkhorn; malodorous.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3.5-4.5 x 1.5-2 m; subellipsoid to cylindric; smooth; hyaline to faintly yellowish in KOH and Melzer's reagent; walls not cyanophilic; often with one small droplet near each end. Sphaerocysts of the branch context 16-56 m across; subglobose to irregular; smooth; walls 0.5-1 m thick; hyaline in KOH. Volval hyphae interwoven; occasionally branching; 2-8 m wide; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH; clamp connections not found.

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Cortinarius marylandensis

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods—primarily with beech and oaks; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and early fall; originally described from Florida, and fairly widely distributed in eastern North America from there to Delaware and Texas, but apparently absent or rare in the upper Midwest; also recently reported from Costa Rica. The illustrated and described collection is from Missouri.

Cap: 1-4 cm; convex or bell-shaped at first, becoming broadly bell-shaped, convex, or nearly flat; dry; silky to finely hairy; bright brick red to brownish red, often fading markedly to pale reddish brown; the margin not lined.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close; colored like the cap, becoming cinnamon to rusty red; short-gills frequent; when young covered by a pinkish to red cortina.

Stem: 2-5 cm long; 0.5-1 cm thick; more or less equal; dry; silky; pale reddish above, colored like the cap below; often darkening to reddish brown near the base or when handled; sometimes with a rusty ring zone; basal mycelium pinkish when fresh.

Flesh: Whitish to pale pinkish in cap and upper stem; reddish to brownish in the stem base; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Radishlike, or not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface red to purple or black.

Spore Print: Rusty brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-8 x 3.5-4 m; ellipsoid or subamygdaliform; finely verrucose. Basidia 25-28 x 5-6 m; subclavate; 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis; elements 5-15 m wide, smooth, hyaline to red-walled in KOH, clamped at septa. Contextual and lamellar elements pinkish purple to purplish red in KOH.

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Gomphidius glutinosus

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with conifers—especially, but not exclusively, with spruces and firs; growing alone or scattered; summer and fall, or over winter in warm climates; northern and montane North America; also distributed in Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. The illustrated and described collection is from Colorado.

Cap: 3-8 cm wide; convex, becoming broadly convex; bald; often with a radially streaked appearance; slimy; grayish brown to brownish gray or lilac brown; discoloring black with age; the margin sometimes with a blackish line.

Gills: Running down the stem; close or nearly distant; whitish at first, becoming dark gray; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 4-8 cm long; 1-2 cm wide; tapering to base; with a slime veil above a fibrillose veil, sheathing all but the upper portion; upper edge of slime veil turning dark gray as spores mature and fall from the gills; whitish above; whitish to brownish below, but chrome yellow near the base or over the lower half; discoloring blackish.

Flesh: White in cap and upper stem; bright chrome yellow in lower stem.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste slightly acidic.

Chemical Reactions: KOH dark red on cap surface.

Spore Print: Dark gray to nearly black.

Microscopic Features: Spores 15-20 x 5-6.5 m; subfusiform; smooth; brownish to brown in KOH. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia 80-130 x 15-22 m; widely cylindric to subutriform; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pileipellis an ixocutis. Clamp connections not found.

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Peziza varia

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

Ecology: Possibly Mycorrhizal despite appearing on deadwood; occasionally appearing in conjunction with slime molds, including http://www.midwestnaturalist.com/fuligo_septica.html" TARGET="new">Fuligo septica; growing alone or gregariously on well-decayed hardwood (and, less often, conifer) logs; also appearing terrestrially in woody debris near stumps, and occasionally on dung or manure, or in woodchips, or even in damp basements; typically found in colder weather (spring and fall in temperate regions), but sometimes appearing in summer; originally described from Sweden (Hedwig 1789), and lectotypified from Denmark, Sweden and England (Hansen et al. 2002); widely distributed in Europe, Oceania, and North America, and occasionally reported from South America. The illustrated and described collections are from California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri.

Fruiting Body: Initially cup-shaped and pale brown to whitish, with the undersurface minutely fuzzy and the upper surface smoother, with a tiny stem-like structure; with development becoming saucer-shaped to flattened-irregular or bent backwards; 2.5-11 cm across; the margin often splitting and sometimes darker in color; upper surface brown to yellow-brown, bald, and often "pinched" or somewhat wrinkled over the center; undersurface whitish and minutely fuzzy; attached to the substrate centrally, without a stem; flesh brownish, unchanging when sliced, brittle, watery when fresh.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Spores 13-20 x 7-11 m; ellipsoid; smooth or, with high magnification, very finely ornamented; eguttulate; hyaline in KOH and in Melzer's. Asci 200-250 x 7.5-12.5 m; 8-spored; with amyloid tips (WTR); without croziers. Paraphyses 200-250 x 2.5-5 m; filiform, with clavate, subclavate, or merely rounded apices; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Context layered, with layers of textura globulosa and a median layer of textura intricata. Tomentum on excipular surface trichoderm-like, with chains of septate, upright elements 7-13 m wide; terminal cells clavate.

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Gliophorus psittacinus

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

Ecology: Precise ecological role uncertain (see Lodge and collaborators, 2013); appearing in hardwood and conifer forests; growing scattered to gregariously; frequently found in moss, or on mossy embankments along wooded roadsides; spring through fall (or over winter in warmer climates); widely distributed in North America, at least as a species group. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois, Michigan, and Québec.

Cap: 5-25 mm across; hemispheric to suboval, expanding to broadly convex or nearly flat; bald; slimy; variable in colors but frequently dark green at first, quickly fading to orangish yellow from the center outward (sometimes sometimes orange with a greenish margin, fading to orange); finally dull orangish yellow; the margin often thinly lined.

Gills: Narrowly attached to the stem; close or nearly distant; usually pale green at first, becoming yellowish--but sometimes orange-yellow throughout development; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 10-40 mm long; 2-3 mm thick; equal; bald; slimy; pale green above and orangish yellow below when young, fading to pale yellowish overall.

Flesh: Whitish; thin.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive, or somewhat foul; taste of slime slightly acidic.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-9 x 3.5-4.5 ; smooth; ellipsoid; hyaline and multiguttulate in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 35-45 long; 4-sterigmate or, occasionally, 2-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia absent. Lamellar trama parallel. Pileipellis an ixocutis.

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