Fungus Discovery... Until next Autumn (Part II of III)
All specimens were found in Healdsburg, CA.
(top left) - Clavulina rugosa or Clavulina cristata (?) branched coral fungus. It's funny, I had never noticed coral fungus before and now I see them hiking about all the time. I wonder if its a good year for them or I'm not as observant as I thought... probably both. Discovered in February 2015.
(top right) - Pleurotus ostreatus (?) Oyster mushroom. It was growing in the cleavage of a dead oak tree. The smooth white caps were huge, ~1ft across, flat shelves. Just beautiful. Discovered in February 2015.
(middle photo) - my notebook sketches to help me identify what I've found. There are lots of other morphological structures to help ID fungus, but this got me started. I liked the "how to identify mushrooms" page from Urbanmushrooms.com
(bottom left) - looks like an Amanita caesarea, the coloring for the cap and stalk match well, as do the gill structures, but this one didn't have the remnants of the cup at the base of the stalk. It also didn't have the annulus ring... It's a conundrum (I love that word). Update- I'm thinking its a Hygrocybe acutoconica, a medium sized waxy cap. What do you think? =) Discovered in January 2015.
(bottom right) - I was thinking it was a trumpet fungus, but after a bit of reading maybe its a type of deeply depressed Chanterelle or Clitocybe? Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the connection between the Cap and gills, so I may never know. ugh- another conundrum! =) I really like the photo though. Discovered in February 2015.