A Fondness for Fungi

Or so it seems with Mother Nature, as we've quite a few varieties literally popping up in the yard.

I've already noted the glow in the dark species,  Panellus stipticus.

Here are a few more.

I haven't identified the species, nor even the genus or family. Mushroom identification is a non-trivial task, even for experienced mushroomers (is that what they call themselves?). So what we have here are just (mostly) pretty* pictures of what I've seen in the yard.

Enjoy!

July

August

A Coral Fungus.

A Puff Ball, perhaps an Earthball.

This above image may be of a "slime mold" an organism once but no longer classified as a fungi. Still cool though.

September

Decaying remains.

October

These two appear to show the mycelium which for mushrooms is the main biomass. It is usually unseen as it is in the substrate on which the mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of the organism, grow out of.

November

Turkey Tail.

🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄

As mentioned above, mushrooms are notoriously hard to identify. One needs to look at the gill/pore structure; how the cap attaches to the stem; is there a veil and if so how does it attach to the stem and cap; the smell; the taste (which is dangerous if done wrong, where by dangerous I mean deadly); the spore print; the color; changes in color when handled; the "milk". And even then there are look alikes that can only be told apart by genetic analysis.

So I'm going to be happy to ID these to the kingdom level, where the kingdom is Fungi.

👁🍄👁👀👁👀👁👀👁🍄👁

* Beauty, of course, being in the eye of the beholder.