It’s not a puffball, but it was growing by itself. No clue what this could be.
The closest thing it seems it might resemble is the shape and texture of an Aborted Entoloma, but there’s no way to test that now as the specimen was lost during transport. Either case it seems unlikely.
Slimy, yellow. Ick.
Growing on decaying oak, it seems.
I didn’t take much of a closer look.
Absolutely heartbreaking…
Found it but 20 feet off our normal path through the woods. If we had come across it a week earlier, it would have been a feast (10+ lbs.).
Now it’s merely a tree with some fancy cork modern-art sticking out of it. Far, far too old. 😛
Lentinus sp.?
Growing on unidentified decaying wood. Toothed gills (the Lentinus tipoff).
Did not collect a sample.
Large shelf mushroom. Flesh thick and fleshy to rubbery. Pores on the underside tiny. Younger specimens’ pores bruise brown over a few seconds.
Although the smaller specimen photo looks superficially like Polyporus squamosus (Dryad’s Saddle) it is certainly not. Flesh doesn’t match, pores are of the wrong size, and it does not have the characteristic “watermelon” smell.
Try as I might, I could not get a single spore off of it.
Unidentified coprinoid species. Gills liquifying, growing on rotting wood and leaf litter.
Growing on a dead tree carcass too old and decomposed to identify.
Still, a rather neat looking mushroom. 🙂
Certainly a Panther Cap, could be Amanita pantherina but is more likely Amanita velatipes due to its “stockier” stature and a cap that is more yellowish than desaturated tan.
Lots of edibles collected on the 13th as well as this afternoon. Both walks were abbreviated as were still recovering from colds.
About 6.5 pounds of mushrooms total.
Calvatia cyathiformis
This one was one of the freshest I’ve come across this season. The flesh was pure white, firm, and smelled wonderfully.
(Didn’t quite resize properly. I’ll try and re-upload it later.)
Vascellum curtisii
(Again, didn’t resize well.)
The C. cyathiformis from earlier along with a mess of Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus).
The patch of P. ostreatus.
This is the same log as before, whose base had the Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa). After last night’s rain, we looked a little further up the log and saw:
A *gorgeous* and *large* Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus).
The entire thing was so fresh that not even the inner-most parts were corky yet.
On our way out of the woods, we spotted a giant Black Oak tree (Quercus velutina) that had seven clusters of young Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa).
We took three. This one.
This one.
Not this one.
And this one.
Tomorrow we plan on coming back to see how the others have grown (or if other mycophiles helped themselves). 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
A number of Grifola frondosa (Hen of the Woods) around the base of a Quercus velutina (Black Oak).
Note the variation of color. The lighter ones tended to be on the shadier side of the tree.