Artist’s Conk (Ganoderma applanatum) forms fruiting bodies that can persist for years, adding a new layer of pores annually. These show up as concentric rings, so you can estimate its age much like counting tree rings.
Recent searches
Search options
#fungi
58 posts45 participants0 posts today
Perenniporia ohiensis
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Perenniporia_ohiensis.html
Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; common on fence posts and rails (especially those of locust wood); causing a white rot; resupinate or, more commonly, with a cap; perennial; found year-round (especially in warmer climates) but generally appearing in summer and fall; fairly widely distributed in North America from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest, but apparently absent or rare on the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest.
Fruiting Body: Sometimes lacking a cap but usually with a tough, hoof-shaped cap measuring up to 2 cm across; upper surface smooth or finely velvety, whitish at first, becoming brownish and eventually black, often with a zoned appearance; pore surface ivory white, the pores surrounded by thick walls; 3-7 pores per mm; tubes to 4 mm deep per layer; flesh woody and tough, whitish to brownish; stem absent.
Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.
Chemical Reactions: Cap surface red to blackish with KOH.
Spore Print: Presumably white, but not documented (I have not tried to obtain one).
Microscopic Features: Spores 13-16 x 7-10 (but my collections frequently feature smaller spores, measuring 8-11 x 5-6 ); smooth; elliptical, with a severely truncated end; hyaline in KOH; in Melzer's sometimes faintly or strongly dextrinoid; thick-walled. Cystidia absent. Hyphal system di- to trimitic.
Verpa bohemica. If it rains tomorrow we'll have a feast in a few days.
Gyromitra esculenta.
A common fungus on southern Vancouver Island in early spring. Guidebooks list it as "toxic" and there have been fatalities recorded from consumption. The primary toxin, gyromitrin, is water soluble so boiling the mushrooms and discarding the water removes most of the toxin. But, gyromtrin hydrolyzes to monomethylhydrazine (aka rocket fuel) that is toxic when inhaled. So prepare them outside or in a room with good ventilation.
Morchella frustrata
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Morchella_frustrata.html
Ecology: Possibly saprobic and mycorrhizal at different points in its life cycle; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously under hardwoods (including Pacific madrone and oaks) and under conifers (including Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine; sugar pine, and white fir); spring; probably widely distributed in western North America but DNA-documented to date only from California and Oregon.
Cap: 4-6 cm tall and 2.5-4 cm wide; conical or nearly so; pitted and ridged, with the pits primarily arranged vertically; when young with bald, slightly flattened, yellowish to nearly whitish ridges and pits; when mature with sharpened or eroded, pale tan to yellowish ridges and pale tan to pale pinkish tan pits; attached to the stem with a small groove (2-4 mm deep); hollow.
Stem: 2-4 cm high and 1-2.5 cm wide; more or less equal, or sometimes a little swollen at the base; whitish; bald or finely mealy with granules; hollow.
Microscopic Features: Spores 20-29 x 14-19 ; smooth; elliptical; without oil droplets; contents homogeneous. Asci 8-spored. Paraphyses cylindric with subclavate or merely rounded apices; septate; hyaline to brownish in KOH. Elements on sterile ridges 100-175 x 12.5-20 ; septate; hyaline to brownish in KOH; terminal cell clavate or subclavate.
Cluster of glossy mushrooms on an old, dead branch. New blog post: https://wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/04/mushrooms-old-and-new.html #VancouverIsland #Mushrooms #Fungi #Nature
Slender Parasol mushrooms are fairly common in Britain and Ireland and they also occur across most of Europe.
My drawing is available to buy...
https://theweeowlart.etsy.com/listing/1887810317
#FediGiftShop #ScottishArtist #MastoArt #CreativeToots
#MushroomArt #Fungi #WildMushrooms #OriginalArt #Drawing #PenAndInk #ColourPencil #MixedMedia #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop
Blumenavia rhacodes
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Blumenavia_rhacodes.html
Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously--often near stumps or woody debris; originally described from Brazil; distributed, at a minimum, from Brazil through Mexico and into Texas, but precise distribution limits are uncertain due to confusion with other species. The illustrated and described collection is from Texas.
Fruiting Body: When young appearing like a whitish to brown or black "egg," but soon "hatching" and developing into a cage-like structure measuring up to 13 cm high and 5 cm wide; oval in shape, composed of 3-5 unbranched, pale yellow to creamy whitish arms that are joined at the top; arms about 1-1.5 cm wide, in cross-section more or less triangular or four-sided, with the outer surface fairly flat (but lacking a pronounced longitudinal groove) and the inner surfaces more rough, punctuated by membranous flaps of tissue ("glebifers"); the edges between outer and inner surfaces often appearing jagged or "toothed"; spore slime dark brown, produced on the glebifers on the inner surfaces of the arms, from the top of each arm nearly to the bottom; bases of arms free, but encased in a whitish to dark gray, dark brown, or nearly black volva; base attached to prominent white rhizoids.
Microscopic Features: Spores 3-4 x 1-1.5 m; cylindric; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Hyphae of the volva 2-7 m wide; smooth; hyaline in KOH; with clamp connections.
Aleuria cestrica
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Aleuria_cestrica.html
Ecology: Trophic role uncertain; possibly saprobic or mycorrhizal; growing gregariously on the ground under oaks and possibly other hardwoods, often in moss; late spring through fall; distributed in North America from the Great Plains eastward; also known from Central America and Europe. The illustrated and described collection is from Illinois.
Fruiting Body: Cup-shaped, becoming flattened with age; 2-5 mm across; without a stem.
Upper Surface: Bright orange when fresh, fading to brownish orange; bald.
Undersurface: Orange to pale orange; bald.
Flesh: Orangish; brittle.
Odor: Not distinctive.
Microscopic Features: Spores 6-10 x 3.5-5 m (without ornamentation); ornamentation as a well-developed reticulum 1-2 m high; developing polar apiculi 1-2.5 m long; smooth and ellipsoid before maturity; hyaline in KOH; yellowish in Melzer's. Asci 100-125 m long; 8-spored; tips inamyloid. Paraphyses 90-125 x 2-4 m; filiform below subclavate, straight or slightly curved apices; septate; smooth; with orangish contents in KOH; hyaline in Melzer's.
We don't have a lot of flowers blooming here as of yet, so I thought I'd share this fungi flower with you 
#fungifriends #fungi #mushrooms
Bulgaria inquinans
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Bulgaria_inquinans.html
Ecology: Saprobic on decaying oak and tanoak sticks and logs (also sometimes reported on the wood of birches or elms); growing alone, gregariously, or (more commonly) in clusters; late summer and fall (over winter in warm climates); widely distributed in North America.
Fruiting Body: Cup- or top-shaped at first, becoming flattened or convex; 1-5 cm across; outer surface brown to black, finely to prominently hairy or scaly (often smoother and blacker with age); upper surface black, shiny, and smooth; flesh rubbery to gelatinous; stem absent or merely a pinched-off extension.
Microscopic Features: Spores 9-17 x 6-7 ; elliptical to somewhat lemon-shaped; smooth. Asci up to about 150 long; 8-spored, with the top 4 spores dark brown and uniguttulate in KOH and the bottom 4 spores poorly developed, multiguttulate, and hyaline. Paraphyses filiform.
Hapalopilus nidulans
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Hapalopilus_nidulans.html
Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or in small groups on decaying logs and sticks; on hardwood debris in the east, or conifer wood in the southwest; causing a white rot; spring to fall, or over winter in warmer climates; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, and occasionally reported in the southwest and Pacific Northwest. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.
Cap: 2.5-7 cm across; 1-3 cm deep; irregularly semicircular or kidney-shaped; convex; bald or finely suedelike; wrinkled in places; evenly dull orange to dull orangish cinnamon; when fresh and growing with a paler, yellowish to whitish margin.
Pore Surface: Dull orangish brown; not bruising, or bruising slightly darker; with a sterile marginal band; with 2-3 angular pores per mm; tubes 2-4 mm deep.
Stem: Absent.
Flesh: Dull orangish brown or paler; watery and soft at first, but later quite tough and hard; not changing when sliced.
Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.
Chemical Reactions: KOH bright purple to lilac on all parts.
Spore Print: White.
Microscopic Features: Spores 2.5-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 m; ellipsoid; smooth; inamyloid; hyaline in KOH. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Setae, cystidia not found. Hyphal system monomitic, with conspicuous clamp connections.
The panther cap is an uncommon mushroom, found in both deciduous, especially beech and, less frequently, coniferous woodland.
https://theweeowlart.etsy.com/listing/1686821621
#FediGiftShop #ScottishArtist #MastoArt #CreativeToots
#MushroomArt #Fungi #WildMushrooms #FungiFriday #OriginalArt #Drawing #PenAndInk #ColourPencil #MixedMedia #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #GiftIdeas #ArtShop
I almost always see fantastical woodland whales in scenes like these:
The knot in the log an eye, the mushrooms like the barnacles on a marine whale 
Perhaps one of these days I'll see one come alive and fly through the Forest like I'm in some Miyazaki film... 
#PNW #USA #WA #ThurstonCounty #CSF #Nature #Forest #Fungi #Mushrooms #TrailRunning #Outdoors #Photography #MobilePhotography
New study by Chan et al. reveals the evolutionary dynamics of self-splicing introns in mitochondrial genomes of Epichloë fungi. Results support rapid intron loss and evolution of homing suppressors.
Tucked away in its little cave of stone and moss.
Barometer Earthstar [Astraeus hygrometricus]
