Shrooming NE

♥ Amateur mycologist in New England, learning as I go ♥

[shroomingne]

If you have a spare 30 minutes and want something nice to watch, this is a wonderful video about a man who takes beautiful photos and videos of fungi, even discovering new species!  There’s some really lovely stuff in here :)

[shroomingne]

Irpex lacteus | Milk-White Toothed Polypore

Found year-round Inedible

This crust fungus can present in different ways.  It can have overlapping brackets (like the pictures above), or be more like a toothy crust (like the picture below).  It’s one of the most common wood-rotting fungi in North America, growing mostly on dead deciduous wood, but can occasionally be found on coniferous wood or even living trees.

[shroomingne]

Cerrena unicolor | Mossy Maze Polypore

Found year-round Inedible

THIS MUSHROOM.  This one has been driving me crazy because it’s everywhere where I live, and yet it’s not in my reference books.  I had to turn solely to the internet to ID it.  Mossy Maze Polypore actually tends to grow algae on it, not moss, and I usually find it growing in big colonies on trees.  Its underside is made up of maze-like teeth.  

Bonus shots of desiccated specimens:

[shroomingne]

Tremella mesenterica | Witches’ Butter

Found year-round Edible

This is another mushroom that’s easy to see from a distance, especially in winter due to its bright color.  Witches’ Butter is fairly small, with each fruit body around 1 to 3 inches long, and it likes to grow on deciduous deadwood.  It has a weird squishy feeling, like jelly but without being sticky or slimy.  Witches’ Butter is edible, and multiple sources say it’s usually added to soups.

[shroomingne]

Daedalea quercina | Thick Mazegill

Found year-round Inedible

This is a big boy!  This one was larger than my hand, and according to my books, each bracket can get up to a foot across and almost 3 inches thick.  These were growing on a thick branch, and it looked like the whole thing had come down recently.  The mushrooms survived the fall mostly in one piece, which makes sense because they’re supposedly extremely hard and tough when dry.  These had been sitting in melting snow for a while so they were somewhat pliable.  Thick Mazegill has a white spore print.

Closeup of the pores:

[shroomingne]

Stereum ostrea | False Turkey Tail

Found year-round Inedible

False Turkey Tail mimics its namesake Turkey Tail, but has a few key differences.  Primarily that the underside is smooth, with no gills, pores, or teeth.  Its concentric ring pattern skews to tan, brown, and cinnamon (or green if algae grows on it).  It has no stem and a white spore print.  False Turkey Tail can be found growing on deciduous trees.  I found this batch on a fallen trunk.

[shroomingne]

Apioperdon pyriforme | Stump Puffball

Fall to winter Edible 

The Stump Puffball is like a tiny version of the puffballs you might see growing in your lawn.  It likes to grow on rotting wood, particularly that of deciduous trees.  Each ball is between about 1 and 2.5 inches wide.  These guys were maybe an inch each.  Obviously they’ve already gone to spore since it’s past their season, but when they’re actively growing they should be shaped roughly like an inverted pear and have a smoothish tan to light brown skin.  They’re supposedly edible when young and still white and firm on the inside, but not particularly sought after.

Bonus closeup for more details!

[shroomingne]

We had a two day warm spell and I managed to get out into the woods after work today!  Lots of new mushrooms incoming! :D

Also, there was a pretty cool deer skeleton just off trail.  I’ll put that under the cut in case anyone doesn’t want to see bones.

RIP deer

[shroomingne]

Scleroderma citrinum | Common Earthball

Summer to fall Inedible

The Common Earthball is a puffball look-alike, but it’s toxic!  These fungi are potato-sized, though this one was on the small side, at about 3 inches across.  I found it growing near the base of a dead stump.  It’s also much harder and scalier than a puffball, and has that distinctive crackly toasted marshmallow look.  Another dead giveaway of an older Earthball is a dark brown/purple/black interior, making a cross section of it look like you cut into a bean bun. A young Earthball will have a white interior like a puffball, but it will be much firmer.

[shroomingne]

This is a great video about winter foraging!  I haven’t been going out lately because it’s been too cold and snowy, but this makes me excited to go looking whenever we get a few days of warmer temps.

Also Learn Your Land is a fantastic channel that you should check out if you’re interested in foraging or just learning about what’s growing around you!

[shroomingne]

Panellus stipticus | Styptic False Oyster Mushroom, Styptic Panus

Found year-round  Inedible

I’m not 100% on this mushroom, but this identification seemed to be the closest match. This is yet another of my early warm January finds: A tough, leathery cluster living on fallen deadwood.  I truly wish I had take a sample home because my books say the gills of fresh young specimens should be luminescent (meaning they glow in the dark!)  If I were to go back to look for it now, it should be shriveled up, and will rehydrate in the spring.  Spores from this mushroom should be white.

[shroomingne]

Pleurotus ostreatus | Common Oyster Mushroom

Spring to early winter Edible

This was another of my early January finds before it got really cold.  It seems to be a young Common Oyster Mushroom.  According to my books, some characteristics to look out for are smooth caps, gills that run down the stems, and the fact they are found growing in overlapping clusters, always on wood.  The caps can be a variety of colors, from cream to tan to gray-brown, and the gills are white or cream-colored. 

Unfortunately I didn’t harvest it when I came across it, and when I went back to look again, I couldn’t find it.  I would have loved to take a sample for a spore print, which should be a gray-lilac color.

[shroomingne]

Stereum complicatum | Crowded Parchment

Found year-round Inedible

I had some trouble finding much info on this one, but I’m fairly sure this is a cluster of Crowded Parchment.  It was a fairly small fungi but easy to see because of its bright golden color.  It looks like there can be quite a variety of ways it presents, but can be found growing in clusters on dead wood.

[shroomingne]

Trichaptum biforme | Violet-Toothed Polypore, Purple Tooth

Grows from spring to early winter, but can be found year-round Inedible

The Violet-Toothed Polypore is a common Turkey Tail look-alike.  They have brighter colors when they’re young, fading as they age.  The main way I identified this mushroom was by the purplish teeth on the underside.  If it was a Turkey Tail, it would have had pores instead.  Violet-Toothed Polypores have a white spore print. 

[shroomingne]

Phyllotopsis nidulans | Orange Mock Oyster

Late summer to late fall Inedible

This is my first crack at identifying something I don’t know, so my best guess is these are young Orange Mock Oyster mushrooms.  I’ve already learned that I should carry my ID book and some paper for spore prints with me, and that I should have smelled this specimen, because those would have given me important clues as to what it is.  If it is what I think it is, it should have a strong unpleasant odor and a pink to tan spore print.

I took these pictures January 2nd, which is a bit outside of what my book tells me is its growing season but up until last week we’ve been having an exceptionally mild winter, so things might be a little off?  

I’ll have to go look for it again to see if I can confirm the ID and see if it looks any different a week or two out.  Provided it survives the sudden plunge into winter temps and weather we’ve just had.

EDIT:

I was able to get back out and find this patch of mushrooms again, and got an updated winter picture of a neighboring cluster.  Since these are a few weeks older, you can see the caps aren’t as rolled under as the first pictures.

I was also able to confirm the spore print, a nice pinkish-tan.

[shroomingne]

Hello everyone!  Or, no one quite yet as this is a brand new blog.  But hopefully a few people someday!

I just want to open this up by saying that I am fairly new to mycology - I only know a few species reliably at the moment, but I’m hoping this blog will be a place where I can practice IDing and documenting species to learn them better.  I’ve got a few books that I’ll be using for references, but if any experts catch me misidentifying something, please let me know!  I want to do my best to get things right.

I may occasionally slip in non-fungal nature pics too if I get something nice :)