Ganoderma tsugae

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

Ecology: Parasitic and saprobic on the wood of eastern hemlock and perhaps other conifers; causing a white rot (usually a butt rot) of the heartwood; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; annual; spring through fall; distributed in the northern Midwest, northeastern North America, and the Appalachian Mountains (where eastern hemlocks occur). The illustrated and described collections are from Michigan and Ohio.

Cap: 4-16 cm; at first irregularly knobby or elongated, but by maturity more or less fan- or kidney-shaped; with a shiny, varnished surface often roughly arranged into lumpy "zones"; bald; dark red to orangish red or reddish brown when mature; when young often with zones of bright yellow and white toward the margin.

Pore Surface: Whitish, becoming dingy reddish brown in age; usually bruising brown; with 4-6 tiny (nearly invisible to the naked eye) circular pores per mm; tubes to 1 cm deep.

Stem: Sometimes absent, but more commonly present; 3-14 cm long; up to 3 cm thick; equal or irregular; varnished and colored like the cap; often distinctively angled away from one side of the cap.

Flesh: Whitish when fresh; fairly soft when young, but soon tougher; concentric growth zones and melanoid bands (see discussion) absent.

Chemical Reactions: KOH instantly black on flesh and tubes.

Spore Print: Brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-12 x 5-7 m; including the hyaline vesicular appendix; more or less ellipsoid, with a truncated end; appearing double-walled, with a series of "pillars" between the walls; finely stippled; inamyloid; brown in KOH. Cystidia and setae not found. Hyphal system trimitic. Clamp connections present. Terminal cells on cap surface clavate; 7.5-12.5 m wide; thick-walled; golden in KOH.

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Paraisaria pseudoheteropoda

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

Ecology: Parasitic on buried cicada nymphs under oaks and other hardwoods, or under conifers; growing alone or in pairs; summer and fall; originally described from Arkansas (Tehan & Spatafora, 2023); spring; widely distributed east of the Great Plains and south of the Great Lakes. The illustrated and described collection is from Virginia.

Fruiting Body: 2-3.5 cm high; with a well-defined head structure atop a stem.

Head: 5-8 mm across; 5-7 mm high; more or less round, or cushion-shaped; brownish orange, with tiny, darker bumps (the tops of the embedded perithecia); dry.

Stem: 2-3 cm long; 3-5 mm wide; more or less equal; bald; whitish, discoloring brownish.

Interior: Flesh in head and stem firm and white, unchanging when sliced; head with a palisade of embedded perithecia just below the surface, with perithecia extending about 1 mm deep.

Microscopic Features: Perithecia amygdaliform; embedded; up to 700 x 350 m;. Asci 75-250 x 4-6 m; narrowly cylindric, with swollen subglobose caps; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Spores about 1 m wide; narrowly cylindric; septate and breaking up into cylindric spore segments 6-7 m long, smooth, hyaline in KOH.

REFERENCES: R. M. Tehan & J. W. Spatafora, 2023. (Kobayasi, 1982; Li et al., 2006; Sung et al., 2007; Sung et al., 2011; Sato et al., 2012; Mongkolsamrit et al., 2019; Tehan et al., 2023.) Herb. Kuo 05202401.

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Real-life namesake of Anthony Rapp's character in #StarTrek #Discovery

(Actually thought this was an April Fools' joke at first.)

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@startrek

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Rhodofomes cajanderi

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

Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of conifers (and, rarely, hardwoods); also sometimes parasitic on living trees; causing a brown cubical rot; growing alone or gregariously; perennial; originally described from Finland; distributed in northern Europe, Russia, China, and Japan; widespread in North America and the Caribbean. The illustrated and described collections are from California and Georgia.

Cap: Individual at times, but more often fused laterally with other caps, or arranged in shelves; up to about 20 cm across and 10 cm deep; flat or broadly convex; finely velvety or hairy, or bald when older; often wrinkled; fairly soft at first, but tougher with age; pinkish brown to pinkish purple when fresh and young, darkening and developing vague zones of pinkish gray, pinkish brown, dark brown, or nearly black; usually paler on the margin.

Pore Surface: Pink; bruising darker pink, then slowly brownish; with 3-5 round pores per mm; annual tube layers usually fairly distinct, up to 1 cm deep.

Stem: Absent.

Flesh: Pinkish; unchanging when sliced; faintly zoned; leathery to woody.

Odor: Strong and fragrant when fresh.

Chemical Reactions: KOH instantly black on flesh.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4-8 x 2-3 m; allantoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 10-12 x 3-4 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Cystidioles 8-14 x 2-4 m; subfusiform or irregular; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Hyphal system trimitic, with thin-walled clamped generative hyphae; thick-walled non-septate skeletal hyphae, and branching, thick-walled, non-septate binding hyphae.

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Pseudocolus fusiformis

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously; often found in urban settings but sometimes appearing in woods as well; year-round, depending on climate; Australasia, Japan, Africa, South America, and, in North America, from Maine through Mexico to Central America. The illustrated and described collections are from Indiana, Massachusetts, and Ohio.

Immature Fruiting Body: Initially a whitish to slightly brownish "egg," partially submerged in the substrate, from which the stinkhorn emerges with development.

Mature Fruiting Body: 3-6 cm high, consisting of a short stem dividing into 3-4 vertical arms that are joined at their tips. Stem about 1-1.5 cm long and 1 cm thick; whitish to pale orange; hollow; surface spongy and finely pocketed; encased in a white to brownish, sack-like volva; attached to numerous white rhizomorphs. Arms with flattened or concave outer sides and convex inner sides; 0.5-1 cm thick; tapering to apex; spongy and pocketed; hollow; orange to reddish orange; inner, convex surfaces covered with dark brown spore slime when fresh.

Odor: Strong and unpleasant.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3-5.5 x 1-2 m; cylindric; smooth; hyaline to ochraceous in KOH. Sphaerocysts of the arms 11-29 m across; subglobose to irregular; smooth; hyaline to orangish in KOH; walls 0.5-1 m thick. Hyphae of the volva 2-10 m wide; smooth; hyaline in KOH; thin-walled; occasionally branching. Clamp connections not found.

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Pogonoloma spinulosum

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in hardwood forests or in urban grassy areas; fall; rare in northern and temperate Europe; very rare in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Cap: 5-8 cm across; at first convex, becoming broadly convex to nearly flat; dry; bald over the center, but finely radially fibrillose toward the margin; the margin slightly tucked under, becoming shallowly, widely lined; dull orangish cream to pale tan.

Gills: Attached to the stem by a notch; close; short-gills frequent; whitish.

Stem: 2.5-6.5 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; equal; bald or finely silky; dry; whitish to pale tan or dull orangish, staining orangish to orange-brown with handling or in age, especially toward the base; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Odor strong and a little unpleasant (hard to describe; not mealy, but sub-spermatic and fragrant). Taste similar.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative to orangish on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3.5-5 x 3-4 m; widely ellipsoid or nearly subglobose; smooth; hyaline in KOH; amyloid. Lamellar trama parallel. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Cystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis; elements 4-12 m wide, smooth, hyaline in KOH. Clamp connections present.

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Fomitopsis spraguei

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

Ecology: Saprobic on the dead and living wood of oaks and other hardwoods; also possibly parasitic on living trees; causing a brown cubical rot; growing alone or gregariously; annual; spring through fall; widely distributed in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Ohio.

Cap: 2-10 cm across; up to 6 cm deep; semicircular to nearly circular or irregular in outline; planoconvex to flat or shallowly depressed; rugged and pocked; very finely fuzzy toward the margin when young, becoming finely fuzzy overall; dry, or, when very fresh, sometimes exuding clear droplets of liquid; grayish overall, becoming whitish; fresh margin brownish orange; when young and fresh bruising grayish green, especially near the margin.

Pore Surface: Grayish white; bruising grayish green when fresh, but bruising brownish at maturity; 1-3 angular pores per mm; tubes 2-4 mm deep.

Stem: Usually absent, but occasionally present as a stubby, lateral extension; 1-2 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; whitish to brownish; fuzzy.

Flesh: Whitish to watery gray or slightly bluish; when fresh and young clearly divided into zones of whitish and grayish; unchanging when sliced; soft-leathery, becoming tougher with age.

Odor and Taste: Odor fragrant; taste not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on flesh; yellowish on cap surface and pore surface.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-8 x 4-5 m; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Hyphal system trimitic: generative hyphae 2-4 m wide, thin-walled, clamped, smooth; skeletal hyphae 4-6 m wide, thick-walled, smooth; binding hyphae 2-4 m wide, thick-walled, non-septate.

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Psathyrella piluliformis

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing in small to large clusters on wood or deadwood of hardwoods or woody debris; sometimes appearing terrestrial but then probably arising from buried wood; spring through fall, or over winter in warm climates; widely distributed in North America; also widely distributed in Europe. The illustrated and described collection is from California.

Cap: 3-7 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex; a little sticky when fresh; bald; brown to reddish brown or honey brown when fresh, but changing color markedly as it dries out, to dull tan; when young with a belt of white veil tissue along the margin.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem; close; short-gills frequent; whitish to pale brownish first, becoming dull grayish brown.

Stem: 6-9 cm long; 4-9 mm thick; equal; fragile; bald or very finely silky; whitish, discoloring brownish where handled; without a ring.

Flesh: Thin; fragile; watery brownish.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: Brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-6 x 2.5-3.5 m; ellipsoid; with a very tiny pore; smooth; brownish in KOH. Lamellar trama parallel. Pleurocystidia 30-50 x 10-15 m; utriform; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Cheilocystidia 35-50 x 7.5-10 m; widely cylindric to subutriform; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pileipellis hymeniform/cellular; terminal elements 15-30 m across, subglobose, smooth, hyaline to orangish brown in KOH.

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Peziza arvernensis

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

Ecology: Saprobic, growing alone or in clusters on the ground in hardwood and conifer forests, usually in areas that have accumulated woody debris; spring through fall--or in winter in coastal California; widely distributed in North America.

Fruiting Body: Cup-shaped when young, often flattening with age or becoming irregularly shaped due to the clustered growth habit; reaching a width of about 8 cm across; upper surface brown and fairly smooth, sometimes becoming slightly wrinkled; under surface minutely velvety with whitish fuzz, at least when young; without a stem; attached to the substrate at a central location. Odor none. Flesh fragile and brittle.

Microscopic Features: Spores 15-20 x 9-10 ; smooth when immature, sometimes becoming finely warted with maturity; elliptical; without oil droplets. Asci eight-spored; with blue tips in Melzer's Reagent; up to 235 x 15 . Paraphyses slender, with swollen tips.

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Lycoperdon curtisii

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

Ecology: Saprobic; usually growing in tight clusters; found in grass, often in disturbed-ground areas like ditches—but also sometimes appearing on woodchips in landscaping areas; late summer and fall; widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Fruiting Body: Shaped like a small ball, 1-3 cm across, but frequently contorted as a result of clustered growth; densely spiny when young; spines 1-2 mm long, often joined at their tips, easily rubbing off; in maturity often fairly smooth, with a powdery coating; white becoming pale brownish; developing a small hole at the top, through which spore dust escapes; appearing pinched together at the bottom; with a white, fleshy interior at first; later with yellowish to olive granular flesh and eventually filled with brownish or purplish brown spore dust; base attached to white rhizoids.

Microscopic Features: Spores 2-3 m; globose; minutely echinulate; hyaline in KOH; occasionally featuring a 1-2 m pedical. Capillitial threads 3-5 &#181m; wide; branching; mostly thin-walled and hyaline in KOH.

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