Cortinarius trivialis

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with quaking aspen and other hardwoods; growing scattered or gregariously; summer and fall (or over winter in coastal California); northern and western North America.

Cap: 3-11 cm; bell-shaped or convex, becoming broadly bell-shaped; thickly slimy; bald; orangish brown to yellowish brown.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close; pale clay or faintly lilac colored at first, becoming brownish or rusty brown.

Stem: 5-12 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; equal or tapering a little to the base; covered with clear or whitish slime when fresh; shaggy and "belted" or obscurely zoned with whitish to brownish scales, especially over the lower half; whitish above, orange-brown to brownish below; sometimes with a rusty ring zone.

Flesh: White, or brownish in base of stem; sometimes bruising brownish.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative to slightly grayish on cap surface.

Spore Print: Rusty brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 10-15 x 5-8 ; amygdaliform or subellipsoid; moderately to weakly verrucose. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia basidiole-like. Marginal cells present. Pileipellis an ixocutis with conspicuously clamped elements.

Entoloma caccabus

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously in bare soil under northern red oak, white oak, hop hornbeam, and persimmon; July; Coles County, Illinois.

Cap: 1-3 cm; planoconvex with a slightly incurved margin at first, becoming shallowly depressed, with a wavy margin and a small umbo; moist; bald; dark grayish brown to dark yellowish brown at first, fading markedly to medium yellowish brown (but often retaining a darker center); the margin becoming slightly translucent-lined with age.

Gills: Attached to the stem; nearly distant; whitish at first, becoming pink; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 2.5-3.5 cm long; 2-4 mm thick; equal; dry; bald or finely silky; whitish to grayish or brownish.

Flesh: Thin; insubstantial; watery whitish to brownish.

Odor and Taste: Mealy.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: Pink.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 6-8 ; 5- to 6-sided; heterodiametric or occasionally nearly isodiametric; angular; smooth; hyaline. Hymenial cystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis; elements 5-12.5 wide, brown to brownish in 10% ammonia, with intracellular pigment. Clamp connections present.

Agaricus auricolor

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or scattered in hardwood forests; summer; southern Illinois and Ohio; possibly distributed throughout southeastern North America (see discussion above). The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Ohio.

Cap: 2.5-6 cm; convex to bell-shaped at first, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; dry; radially fibrillose and scaly with orangish yellow to yellow scales over a pale yellow surface; the margin not lined, sometimes featuring whitish veil remnants when young, yellowing when rubbed repeatedly.

Gills: Free from the stem; close or crowded; short-gills frequent; white when young, becoming dark brown with maturity; covered with a pale yellow partial veil when in the button stage.

Stem: 3-5 cm long; 3-6 mm thick; equal above a slightly swollen base; fibrillose to shaggy; with a thin, collapsing, pale yellow ring; whitish above the ring, yellowish below; yellowing when rubbed; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH yellow on cap surface and stem base.

Spore Print: Dark brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 4-5 x 3-4 m; ellipsoid; smooth; thick-walled; brown in KOH; brown in Melzer's. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Cheilocystidia 10-25 x 6-10 m; septate; clavate; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis.

Such a beautiful mushroom, I wish I could be able to name it and recognize it

Rickenella fibula

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

Ecology: Probably saprobic but apparently involved in some sort of mutualism with moss; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in moss beds; spring through fall, or over winter in warm climates; widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Cap: 2-10 mm across; blocky or squarish at first, becoming convex, then broadly convex, with or without a shallow central depression; tacky when fresh but soon dry; bald or, with a hand lens, very finely hairy; the margin translucent-lined by maturity; orange with a whitish margin when fresh and young; soon fading to yellowish orange overall, with a darker orange center.

Gills: Running deeply down the stem; distant or nearly so; short-gills in several tiers; creamy or very pale orange.

Stem: 5-45 mm long; 0.5-1.5 mm thick; equal; dry; bald; colored like the cap; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Insubstantial; pale.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3-4 x 1.5-2.5 m; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline and 1- to 3-guttulate in KOH; inamyloid. Cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia 25-40 x 5-7.5 m; fusiform with tapered or subcapitate apices; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH; smooth. Pileipellis a tightly packed cutis with numerous pileocystidia 50-100 x 7.5-12.5 m, fusiform with wide bases and tapered, subcapitate, or capitate apices, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline in KOH.

Xylaria hypoxylon

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

Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; growing gregariously to densely gregariously; spring through fall; by strict definitions (see discussion above) distributed in Europe and the West Coast of the United States, but (mis)reported as widely distributed in North America from Canada through Mexico—and in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The illustrated and described collections are from California.

Anamorphic Fruiting Body: 2-10 cm long; 2-15 mm thick; either narrowly cylindric, with a pointy apex—or cylindric below but branched and flattened above, appearing somewhat like moose antlers, with tapering points on most branches; surface black and slightly fuzzy below, but powdery and gray to nearly white above; extreme apex attenuated, whitish to yellowish, and bald; sometimes with a rooting, black, stem-like structure; interior flesh white and tough.

Teleomorphic Fruiting Body: Shaped like the anamorphic fruiting body; surface black, bald, and finely pimply.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Conidia 5-11 x 2-3 m; fusiform; smooth; hyaline in water and in KOH. Spores 13-16 x 5-6 m; subfusoid to subellipsoid; smooth; brown to dark brown in water, with a single, straight germ slit extending the length of the spore. Asci 8-spored.

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.

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.

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.

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.

#NewSpecies!
A newly discovered fungus from #china for #FungiFriday:

Clavaria orientalis

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C72319-8183-55D9-8A84-7886304EEAF3
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.115.145774
#MycoKeys #ClavariaOrientalis

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #fungi #mushrooms #mycology

Helvella sulcata

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

Ecology: Probably mycorrhizal; growing scattered or gregariously on and around well decayed hardwood stumps in upland woods; spring through fall; distribution uncertain but potentially widely distributed in eastern North America.

Cap: 1-5 cm across; saddle-shaped, three-lobed, or loosely and irregularly lobed or folded (especially when young); pale to dark gray--or sometimes nearly black or nearly white; bald; undersurface bald, pale gray to whitish, exposed when young or in irregular caps; margin ingrown with the stem in places when mature.

Stem: 1-6 cm long; to 2 cm wide; more or less equal; extensively ribbed, but the ribs not generally forming holes or pockets, and not extending onto the undersurface of the cap; whitish to grayish; basal mycelium white.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on surfaces negative.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 14-18 x 10-12.5 ; elliptical; smooth; with one large oil droplet. Paraphyses hyaline to brownish in KOH and water; cylindric, becoming clavate with maturity; 4-11 wide. Excipular surface elements hyaline to brown; often arranged in bundles; frequently septate; terminal cells clavate.

Hypomyces lactifluorum

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

Ecology: Parasitic on species of Russula, Lactarius, and Lactifluus—especially Russula brevipes, Lactarius deceptivus, and other members of the Lactarius piperatus group; summer and fall, or over winter in warm climates; originally described from North Carolina (von Schweinitz 1822); widely distributed in North America throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The illustrated and described collections are from Georgia and Michigan.

Fruiting Body: A hard, pimply, orange coating that attacks the host rapidly and soon covers all surfaces, disfiguring the mushroom; with old age the orange often darkens to purplish red.

Perithecia: Reddish brown to nearly black; usually visible to the naked eye.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on surface instantly dark purple, even in dried specimens.

Microscopic Features: Spores 30-40 x 5-7 m; fusiform; verrucose; apiculi about 5 m long, narrowing to a point; hyaline to ochraceous in water and KOH; septate once. Asci 200-275 x 6-10 ml cylindric; 8-spored. Subicular hyphae 3-10 m wide, septate, smooth, sometimes gelatinized, purple-walled in KOH.

Russula vinacea

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

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks and hickories; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; spring and early summer; probably widely distributed in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Cap: 4-12 cm; convex, with an incurved margin when young; becoming broadly convex, flat, or shallowly depressed; slightly sticky when fresh, but soon dry; bald; usually reddish purple to purplish red when young, with a dark (blackish red) center--but sometimes merely dark red or brick red to liver red; often with mottled areas of yellowish or, more rarely, olive shades, especially toward the margin; the margin lined for about 1 cm by maturity; the skin peeling easily about halfway to the center.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem; close or nearly crowded; white at first, becoming creamy or very pale yellow; not bruising; short-gills infrequent; not forked.

Stem: 3.5-8 cm long; 1-3 cm thick; equal; dry; bald; white when young and fresh; bruising a little brownish when fresh, especially near the base; discoloring watery gray with age and on handling; becoming hollow.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste not distinctive, or slightly acrid.

Chemical Reactions: KOH erasing red on cap surface and becoming pale to bright orange. Iron salts pink on stem surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-9.5 x 5-6.5 ; ellipsoid; with amyloid warts and very thin ridges creating patterns and partial reticula; ornamentation mostly under 1 high. Pleuro-and cheilomacrocystidia fusiform to mucronate; hyaline in KOH; abundant; to about 75 x 12 . Pileipellis a cutis; pileocystidia abundant, cylindric with fusiform to subclavate, subcapitate, or constricted apices, ochraceous-refractive in KOH and positive in sulphovanillin, to about 100 x 10 .

My greatest aspiration is to one day become as intelligent as slime mold

Trichaptum biforme

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

Ecology: Saprobic; growing in overlapping clusters on hardwood logs and stumps; late spring, summer and fall; found in all 50 of the United States and all the Canadian provinces; in eastern North America it is one of the most commonly encountered fungi. Trichaptum biforme is a voracious decomposer of dead wood. It causes a straw colored sapwood rot in standing trees.

Cap: Up to 6 cm across and 3 mm thick; more or less semicircular, irregularly bracket-shaped, or kidney-shaped; flattened-convex; hairy, finely hairy or fairly smooth; with zones of whitish to grayish white colors; the margin sometimes pale lilac.

Pore Surface: Purple to lilac, with the strongest shades near the margin; fading to buff or brownish in age; with 3-5 angular pores per mm; usually eroding and developing spines or teeth with maturity (sometimes appearing more like a toothed mushroom than a polypore); not bruising.

Stem: Absent.

Flesh: Whitish; tough and leathery.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative to pale yellowish on flesh and cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-8 x 2-2.5 ; smooth; cylindric to slightly allantoid; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Cystidia abundant; up to 35 x 5 ; more or less fusoid; apically encrusted. Hyphal system dimitic.

Hericium erinaceus

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

Ecology: Saprobic and parasitic; usually growing alone or in pairs; fruiting from the wounds of living hardwoods (especially oaks); late summer and fall, or over winter and spring in warmer climates; originally described from France; widespread in Europe; in North America widely distributed from Canada to Mexico; also found in Central America and Asia. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Missouri.

Fruiting Body: 8-24 cm across; consisting of one, unbranched clump of 1-4 cm long, soft spines hanging from a tough, hidden base that is attached to the tree; top of mature fruiting body often with shortened spines that appear hairy; spines white, or in age discoloring brownish to yellowish.

Flesh: White; not changing when sliced; soft; spongy.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-6 x 5.5-6 m; globose to subglobose or subellipsoid; smooth or minutely roughened; hyaline and uniguttulate in KOH; amyloid. Gloeoplerous hyphae present, sometimes extending into hymenium to become cystidia (up to 50 x 6 m, cylindric with knobbed apices, smooth, thin-walled).