The first few light frosts won’t kill the mycelium that mushrooms fruit from, but they will go dormant when the weather is below freezing both night and day. For now there are still plenty of them in the woods. Here are a few that I’ve seen recently.
These white mushrooms with black stems were tiny and very hard to get a picture of-their stems didn’t seem much thicker than a human hair and the caps were less than the diameter of a pencil eraser. I’m fairly sure these are pinwheel mushrooms (Marasmius capillaris) because this mushroom fruits only on oak leaves and that’s exactly what those pictured were doing. When there is no rain these mushrooms shrivel up to the size of common pins and wait for the rain, after which they come back as they are seen in the photo.
This cluster of what I think are Anise seed Cockleshell mushrooms (Lentinellus cochleatus ) was growing at the base of a stump. The common name comes from the way some of these mushrooms smell like anise. That isn’t a good way to identify them though because my mushroom guide says that many of them are odorless. I like the darker edges. This brown “Witch’s butter” jelly fungus isn’t much to look at but it’s the first one I’ve seen this year. Yellow and orange ones are everywhere, but brown and black are hard to find. Fan shaped jelly fungus (Dacryopinax spathularia) is “widespread but not common,” according to my mushroom book. I’ve seen several of these this summer. They are small, orange or orange yellow, and fan shaped. I see them growing out of cracks in cut branches or which have had the bark removed, often in shaded brush piles. When dry they shrivel and shrink, but when it rains they plump right back up again.
I found quite a few of these yellow orange spindle coral mushrooms growing together over quite a large area. My mushroom guide tells me it is Ramariopsis laeticolor. One website calls it the “handsome club,” which it is.
I don’t see many jelly fungi with stalks like these have. Apparently most other people don’t either because I can’t find any that resemble them in three different mushroom guides or online.
These yellow cup like fungi were so small that I had to crop the photo even though it was taken in macro mode. If you take a yellow crayon and make dots on a piece of paper you’ll have a good idea what these actually looked like to the naked eye. One website calls these “Yellow fairy cups” (Bisporella citrina) and says they grow in dense clusters, which these were doing. Each cup starts out as a spherical yellow globule before opening to the cup shape seen in the photo.
Since this coral fungus has sprouted on a log and not from the ground I think it might be Crown coral (Clavicorona pyxidata.) Crown coral branches at right angles like a candelabra and each branch ends in a tiny little crown, just like what is seen here.
This coral fungus is tan, yellow, orange, maroon, olive green, and a few other colors as well, but since it is mostly yellowish tan I believe it is Ramaria abietina. My mushroom guide says this species should be identified microscopically, so my identification should be taken with a grain of salt. Ramaria abietina has no common name that I can find.
This is another of the coral fungi that I believe is Clavaria ornatipes. This fungus is described as spatula or club shaped and greyish to pinkish gray. It grew directly out of the ground. This is one of the tooth fungi, called Hericium americanum. One website also calls it bears head fungi, but I don’t know how accurate that name is. My mushroom guide says this many branched fungus always grows on the side of a log or stump and that’s exactly where I found this one. It reminds me of icicles hanging from the eaves.
I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
Thanks for stopping by.
Always interesting to see your identification of fungi- I see some occasionally but have no clue on what they are. Thanks for the info!
Be sure to still check the books-I’m no expert!
I have seen all of these here, but the coral fungus. And, that was before a week of rain. It is amazing to me that the colors come up of the ground in the dark woods.
The coral mushrooms seem to grow where you would least expect to see a mushroom and often off by themselves. It is amazing what colors come out of the ground.
Beautiful and fascinating! I immediately fell in love with the pinwheel mushrooms! Too bad we don’t have oaks here!
No oaks in Montana? I wonder why. In any case, there are very similar Marasmius mushrooms that grow on the ground as well, so there’s a chance that you might see some of them.
You and your quotes, Allen…wonderful again…and fascinating fungi, too. 🙂
Thanks Scott. I like those quotes!
I like them, too, Allen…very much. 🙂
The Bisporella citrina looks like red blood cells (except… yellow).
I just wish they were big enough to be seen by eye. It’s startling to open a picture and see things that you weren’t expecting.
Great photos!
Thanks!
Interesting post and great pictures. I especially liked the tooth fungi and the different kinds of coral fungi. They really do look like something that you would see if you were scuba diving.
Thanks Mike. I think fungi are some of the most interesting things found in nature. I agree-many do look like they belong in the oceans rather than on dry land.