PNW Mushrooms

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Came across these two massive fly amanitas in an otherwise (mushroom) dormant grove. 

Amanita muscaria

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Orange peel fungus, Aleuria aurantia, in a fall, hillside rivulet.

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Some spring finds...

best guess Gyromitra or Discina perlata and Bisporella citrina or Heterotextus alpinus

I’m too busy to properly sort through and understand the taxonomy around these mushrooms so the definitions are fully ballpark.  Apologies ahead of time, but it’s either lazy-post or don’t post at all.  I feel confident in placing the reddish-brown guys in the Discina or Gyromitra group or family (whichever the correct nomenclature is).  If they aren’t Pig Ears, then they are close relatives and I was lucky to have found them all in one small cluster of rock on a logging road in the middle of a clearcut.  There were Jelly Drops all along the trail: large, well-defined and attractive.

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distinctive characteristics of the local Gomphidiuses

from top:

Rosy Gomphidius, Gomphidius Subroseus

Slimy Gomphidius, Gomphidius glutinosus

smokey gills and yellow base of a Rosy Gomphidius

yellow base of a Slimy Gomphidius

Rosy G. with thick, slimy-viscid cuticle separated from cap

Gomphidial neck at separation...

             - rubbery cap cuticle clearly visible at the cap margin

             - gills and annulus still mostly white with some spore staining showing in striations at the annulus

Gomphial neck at maturity...

              - the strongly decurrent gills accentuate the inverted cone appearance of the cap even though it is more depressed than infundibular

             - the slime annulus is stained black with spores

             - the difference in stipe width above and below the annulus appears more pronounced

The neck is disctinctive; it’s hard to describe, but easy to recognize.  The entire mushroom is covered with a cuticle (alternately described as slimy, slimy-viscid, glutinous, or gelatinous depending on the source) that tears as the cap expands.  The result is a slime annulus that blackens as the dark spores stick to it, and a pronounced difference in stipe circumferences above and below the annulus.  

pics from Oct 11 - 27, 2016

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spring Mycenas

In an otherwise dormant forest, I was lucky enough to stumble on a swath where these guys were growing in the hundreds.  Most of them showed some signs of damage, but they are clearly flourishing in the cold.

I struggle with Mycena identification and this was no different.  The closest description I found was Mycena stipata, but these were gregarious rather than clustered and had no obvious affinity for wood (ie. they were growing amongst litter and moss rather than on logs).  They were large for Mycenas ( 2" - 4"), with thick mycelial hairs at the base and a thin-walled, hollow stipe.  The pics were shot on an iphone.

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Variance across similar hygrocybes...challenges to identification.

from top: susp. Vermillion waxcap (miniata), Golden waxcap (flavescens), Vermillion, Witch’s hat (conica), and then three Vermillions.

While relatively confident in the id of the Witch’s Hat and the Golden Waxcap, the Vermillion was more difficult.  In many cases it was a deep red more likely in a Scarlet Waxcap.  I id’d them based on the cap scales, splitting, stringy stipe, and the proximity to other examples (gregariousness).  If anyone can offer a better id I’d love to hear it.  

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susp. Hygrocybe conica

Breadth of variance in Witch’s Hats across individuals and stages of maturity.

Oct. 21 - Nov 3, 2016

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Spent, little ink caps.  2016/09

susp. Mica caps, Coprinellus micaceous

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Orange-staining stipe of a Shaggy parasol, Chlorophyllum olivieri

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susp. Rusty-gilled polypore, Gloeophyllum saepiarium

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Carbon antlers, Xylaria hypoxylon

The carbon antlers were huge (as in "large", not as in "a really big deal") this year.  The first four shots focus on immature fruitbodies where the ends are covered in white, powdery, asexual spores that flake off easily.  In the last picture, though, are fruitbodies in their fully black, sexual spore-producing, mature stage.  The minute bumps you can just barely see covering the surface are openings to the perithecia.  From MushroomExpert.com: “The mushrooms are “Pyrenomycetes,” which means they produce spores in asci that are embedded in tiny pockets called “perithecia”; the asci take turns growing into the narrow opening of the pocket so that they can shoot spores away from the fungus and into the air currents.”  

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Shaggy mane at the end of deliquescence, Coprinus comatus

It took me a minute to figure out what this was.  You'd think it would've been the ink staining the stipe or the other shaggy manes around that would've tipped me off, but it was the distinctive ring, loosely connected to the cap when fresh but easily separated and completely free of the liquefaction process. As is the stipe, which was standing firm and healthy.  And TALL.  All that was left of the cap was the much diminished star of shaggy scales at the very top.

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Helvella lacunosa from the magic lawn.

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unknown cort and a banana slug

Very glutinous cap (heavy on the slime) with very irregular margin.  I’m sure somewhere there’s a term for the pattern at top, but I don’t know it.  Browny-green colour, white stipe, and neon-green gills (not as vivid as a suphur tuft’s, but not far off either).  Stipe colours subtly purple when cut.

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Belly-button hedgehogs, Hydnum umbilicatum

These guys don't stand out much on the forest floor.  Washed-out and lumpen, they look more like LBM's on their way out than choice edibles until you get a look under the cap and have your mind blown a little bit.   The caps fit Trudell and Ammirati's "...obscurely to distinctly zonate..." description, in shades of orangey-tan, but the giveaway is the misshapen navel, either well-formed or struggling.

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Cucumber caps growing in an ornamental tree pot.  Macrocystidia cucumis

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Orange peel fungus, Aleuria aurantia 

 Stole these pics from my cousin in northern BC. I've seen lonesome examples of these around here, but never a cluster like this.