my my mycology!

Another mushroom walk today along the creek near my house.

Found a bunch of yellow mushrooms growing on a dead tree trunk. The average size was 5 cm in diameter, the cap was convex with brown scales and sticky, adnate gills, yellow-olive spore prints. Black termite-y looking bugs chewing holes in them. I think they are Pholiota alnicola.

Another bunch of polypores growing on dead wood. White with a yellow-creamy edge, cap has bumps on it (like it has rhino whatever), convex shape, seemed delicate like a succulent, creamy pink-orangle pores, no stem (it was growing on the wood along the edge of the cap). I wasn't able to get spore print on white or black paper. Maybe a Tyromyces chioneus?



Finally a puffball in the neighbor's yard. I should probably let them know what I'm up to on their lawn so they don't call the coppers on me. It had scales and what looks like an annulus. Do puffballs have annuli?

Mushrooming

After reading Omnivore's Dilemma, I was inspired to go mushrooming hunting. I got a mushroom identification book out of the Ag school's library and starting looking around. So far all the mushrooms I've found have been non-edible or poisonous. But here are some samples:

Inocybe fastigiata var. umbrinella (http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6434~source~gallerychooserresult.asp)
This was growing in the mulch of the garden outside my office

Also nearby was a small brown mushroom with a semi-sphere hat and a long white stem. Very cute. I think it is either a Mycena or a Psilocybe.

Turkey Tail on a stump near my house

I found a whole bunch of mushrooms growing near the pines in my front yard. They are all boletes. There is probably a Suillus luteus and a Suillus americanus. The other two I'm not sure of. One has a fuzzy beige cap with a grey underside and the other looks like Suillus americanus but brown instead of weird icky yellow. They were sticky and made my fingertips itchy. Apparently they are edible but may cause dermatitis.