We’re nearing the end of our yellow / red / orange mushroom phase and going into the purple phase, so I thought I’d get one more photo of what I think might be butter wax caps (Hygrocybe ceracea.) They are one of the most photogenic of all mushrooms, in my opinion. Those that I find almost always grow in groups. The tip of the oak leaf on the left gives a sense of scale.
The word “lurid” came to mind when I saw these purple cort mushrooms (Cortinarius iodeoides.) It means “very vivid in color, especially so as to create an unpleasantly harsh or unnatural effect,” but the color is not at all unnatural, so I might need to find another descriptor. Their caps are quite slimy when they are young, so they always look wet. They will lighten in color as they age.
Is this a stinkhorn mushroom or another species whose cap hasn’t opened yet? The only way to find out was to watch it but since I live three quarters of an hour from where it grew, I wasn’t able to. Another one for the mystery folder.
To see small things you need to re-train your eyes. (And your mind, somewhat) Jelly babies (Leotia lubrica) are what led me down that path years ago. One day I sat down on a stone to rest and looked down, and there they were. I was surprised by how tiny they were, but they helped me see that forests are full of things just as small and sometimes many times smaller. You need to be ready (and able) to flatten yourself out on the forest floor to get good photos of jelly babies.
Crown coral fungi come in many colors, but I usually find the tan / white varieties. The examples in this photo had a touch of orange, which I was happy to see. The way to tell if you have a crown coral fungus is by the tips of the branches, which in crown coral look like tiny crowns rather than blunt or rounded. They grow on dead wood but if that wood is buried they can appear to be growing in soil. Their peak season seems to be July through August here.
These are another coral fungus called spindle corals (Ramariopsis laeticolor.) The taller ones might reach an inch and a half high and their diameter is close to a piece of cooked spaghetti. They have the odd habit of growing in the packed earth of trails so I often find that they have been stepped on and broken.
Velvet stalked fairy fan mushrooms (spathularia velutipes) look more like leaves than mushrooms to me, but they are a form of spatulate mushroom that get their name from their resemblance to a spatula. They grow on conifer logs or in conifer debris on the forest floor. These examples grew in the packed earth beside a trail. This was the first time I’ve noticed them.
What I think are orange chanterelle wax cap mushrooms (Hygrocybe cantharallus) grew along the side of a mossy log. Three or four of these tiny mushrooms could hide behind a pea but they always grow in clusters so they’re relatively easy to see. It always seems to be dark where I find them so I have to use a flash. Orange and yellow mushrooms seem to hold their color fairly well under a flash but the stems and gills have lightened slightly on some of these, so I probably should have used an L.E.D.
Wood ear fungi (Auricularia auricular) are almost ear size and are hard to find in this area. These rubbery fungi grow on rotting wood and are used in hot and sour soup in China. Science has shown that they can decrease blood cholesterol levels, and it is thought that they may be part of the reason that the Chinese exhibit such a low incidence of heart disease. They don’t look very appetizing to me, but if they were hidden in a soup or maybe spaghetti sauce I might be able to get them down.
Yellow patches (Amanita flavoconia) gets its name from the yellow bits of the universal veil on its orange cap. The universal veil is made of tissue and completely covers the young mushroom. As the mushroom grows it eventually breaks through the membranous veil and pieces of it are left behind on the cap. Rain can wash them off, and that is most likely why this example has so few of them. This mushroom is in the amanita family, which contains some of the most toxic mushrooms known. I know I’ve said it a hundred times but it bears repeating: never eat any mushroom that you aren’t 100% sure is safe.
Oyster mushrooms are pure white and seem to always grow in overlapping clusters like those in the photo. The one standing straight up is unusual; oyster mushrooms have off center stems that usually grow out of the side of the log and are hidden by the cap.
Mushrooms are often eaten by tiny worms called nematodes that live on plant and fungal tissue, but not oyster mushrooms. Scientists discovered in 1986 that oyster mushrooms “exude extracellular toxins that stun {nematode] worms, whereupon the mycelium invades its body through its orifices.” What this means is that oyster mushrooms are actually carnivorous. They also consume bacteria (Pseudomonas and Agrobacterium) in order to get nitrogen and protein.
Black chanterelles (Craterellus cornucopioides) are also called deep purple horn of plenty mushrooms and are rare enough in this area to only grow in one spot that I know of. When I first found these last year I learned that they are considered a great delicacy by mushroom hunters, but are also rare. Because of their color mushroom hunters complain that they’re very hard to see but for a change I think colorblindness serves me well, because I can see them without any difficulty. I’ve read that colorblind people can “see through” camouflage and I’m beginning to wonder if it might not be true.
By far the biggest mushroom that I’ve ever seen is Berkeley’s polypore (Bondarzewia berkeleyi.) I put a quarter above and to the right of the center of this one so you could get an idea of how big this monster was. It must have been 2 feet across at its widest point. This mushroom grows at the base of hardwoods in the east and in the west a similar example, Bondarzewia montana, grows at the base of conifers. The first time I saw Berkeley’s polypore I misidentified it as chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus.)
The world of mushrooms is full of fascinating facts but also stunning beauty, and that’s why I never ignore even the broken ones. You never know what you’ll see.
Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.
~Sylvia Plath,
Mushrooms
Thanks for coming by.
These are beautiful! Is it alright to share your wonderful pictures?
Regards,
akuo sorhie.
Thank you. I don’t mind if you use them for your own personal use or if you share them with friends, but I don’t allow them to be used commercially.
You are the second in a month that has encouraged me to appreciate Sylvia Plath more. Great pictures…of course
Thanks! I had never heard of her before I saw this poem. Now I’m interested enough to look into more of what she has written.
Your fungi posts always make me want to go walking in the woods looking for them. It’s always exciting when I do find some even though I’m not always sure what they are. I love the poem too.
Thanks! They can be tough to identify, but finding them is always fun.
I really enjoyed this post and the large variety of mushrooms, of which I was familiar with just one.
Thanks! There are so many different mushrooms out there I don’t think anyone could know them all.
Love the great tutorial on mushrooms…The information is superb and the photos are even better.
Thank you Charlie. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Beautiful shots of a fascinating subject!
Thanks!
One of my favorite things about teaching biology in fall is taking students walking and looking for the fungus crop. This semester, I’m only teaching chemistry, but I’m sure there’s a way to feature fungus anyway…
Maybe you could explain how tropolone are synthesized in fungi. It’s a 70 year old mystery that has finally been solved. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120416154414.htm
My ex knew his mushrooms and we often dined on wonderful feasts after a good rain. I am too timid to do it alone. Great photos!! and educational text, as always.
Thank you Martha. I’m glad to hear that you’re too timid to do it alone. Even experts have been poisoned by eating the wrong mushrooms. I look at them more as works of art than food.
Great photos, doesn’t look like to be any of those are edible! We have a lot of mushrooms growing this week after all the rain we had. A lot of stinkhorn mushrooms, deadly galerina, wood ear, mock oyster and others. The rain seems to bring them out! Love all your pictures 🙂
Thanks Michael. The rain really does bring them out, and when it’s humid they last for awhile longer than when it’s dry. The oysters, wood ears, and black chanterelles in this post are edible but I don’t eat them.
Beautiful, colourful, varied and fascinating! Fungi are all these and useful too. thank-you for the interesting post.
You’re welcome Clare. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I need you over here. My eyes need training badly.
Practice is what it takes, just like with anything else.
Beautiful post and the poem is a perfect finale. Amelia
Thank you. I thought so too.
That’s Diversity with a capital “D.” So interesting!
Thank you. I think I’m ready to stop being surprised by all of the colors and shapes that mushrooms can be!
You don’t want to hurt their feelings. They like the attention.
All the photos were great but that last one truly is stunning! I also like all the info about the mushrooms, but you don’t have to worry about me taste testing any of the mushrooms that I find in the woods!
You must have been getting more rain there than we have here. After your slime mold post I’ve been looking for them and mushrooms, but we’ve had a bit of a drought right in the area I live. Even yesterday, the east side of Michigan got 6 inches of rain and is closed due to flooding, we got just enough rain to wet the ground.
Thanks Jerry! No, I’m fairly sure that you’d probably be the last one to taste test an unknown mushroom but unfortunately there are those who do.
I planted some impatiens in May and haven’t watered them once, so though it hasn’t been a real wet year we’ve had at least some rain every week, along with a few humid days. It’s really coming down right now but again, this is the only rain we’re supposed to get this week, so it seems like we’re getting a week’s worth of rain in a day this summer.
I’m glad you didn’t have the rain that I’ve heard about on the news. It sounds like the Detroit area got hit really hard.
Really fascinating post! Are you sure there wasn’t somebody with spray paint on the trail before you? Some of those mushrooms like like they were painted, especially the purple cort. The coral fungus are quite beautiful.
Thanks! No, mushrooms are often more colorful than flowers but I’m not sure anyone really knows why. I like the corals too. They seem smaller than usual this year.
What a remarkable post! A most unusual and beautiful collection of mushrooms, with their various colours and shapes. Wow!
Congratulations.
I have nothing to say about the penis-shaped mushroom, but only because I’m a lady of great dignity.
So, instead, I’ll say that the final picture is stunning.
Thank you Cynthia. I had to laugh at your comment about the stinkhorn. Remember-I don’t create them-I just report on finding them.
Sure….
fantastic pictures again….I also love the poem…
Thank you Sue. I think Sylvia Plath really knew her mushrooms!
I really enjoyed every photo, so beautiful. I recently moved to NH and have discovered mushroom foraging. I went on my first ever mushroom foray last week with the Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited and we found lots of what everyone called Black Trumpets. They were cooked several different ways and were delicious. I haven’t been able to find them on my own, yet, but I can’t wait to get up everyday to go foraging. I’ve learned so so much from you, too. Thank you. Now I want to find a purple mushroom!
Thank you Dorian. I haven’t heard of the Monadnock Mushroomers but they sound like professionals, so I’m glad that you’re with them. You must live in the Monadnock region so I’ll tell you that the Beech Hill woods above Robin Hood park in Keene are full of black trumpets this year. Another forager told me he had never seen so many. If you find a purple cort you might not want to eat it. They’re supposed to be very bitter.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Once again you have shown us, Allen, that mushrooms (and other fungi) can be just as beautiful as flowers. I love seeing all of the different colors and shapes and sizes (that one giant mushroom is a monster) and I enjoyed the Sylvia Plath poem.
Thanks Mike. The world of mushrooms is a fascinating place to explore as long as you don’t have knee troubles.
I am surprised what a range of different mushroom live in your area.
These are just a few of what we see here. They’re everywhere you look right now.
Fascinating post. I had never heard of the fan mushrooms, they are really neat looking. The purple cort has amazing color.
Thanks Laura. I’ve never seen those fairy fan mushrooms until this year. They’re quite small and easy to miss, and if they hadn’t been growing on the edge of the trail I would never have seen them.
So interesting, I read the whole blog with care. Lovely pictures and a splendid poem to finish with.
Thank you Susan. I thought that poem was funny.
Having less colour information perhaps makes “colour blind” people concentrate more on luminosity data and that is what helps them to “see through camouflage”. Certainly a subject will sometimes stand out in a black and white image where it is indistinct in a colour image. Or perhaps it is just an old wives’ tale.
You could be right Jim. I’ve also read that colorblind people can better define the edges of things that have been camouflaged, and that armies often use colorblind people as scouts. It’s an interesting subject!
A second career Allan?
I don’t think so. There isn’t much time left after engineering and blogging.